8.3 INTERNET MARKET RESEARCH Traditional marketing research
Consists of focus groups, interviews, paper and telephone surveys, questionnaires and secondary research Findings based on previously collected data
Online marketing research Faster option for finding and analyzing industry,
customer and competitor information Provides relaxed and anonymous setting to hold
focus-group discussions and distribute questionnaires
8.3 INTERNET MARKETING RESEARCH
Segmentation Can be based on age, income, gender, culture and
common needs and wants
Demographics Statistics on human population, including age, sex,
marital status and income
Psychographics Can include family lifestyle, cultural differences and
values Traditional focus groups can allow customers to
touch, smell and experience products or services
8.3 INTERNET MARKETING RESEARCH Online focus groups
Conducted to allow current or potential consumers to present their opinions about products, services or ideas
Comfortable setting for participants Leader of the focus group cannot interpret a participant’s
body language as a form of communication SurveySite
Online surveys Conducted from Web site or through e-mail InsightExpress.com, GoGlobal Technologies and QuickTake
Test your site and marketing campaign on a smaller scale with focus groups and trials
Data collected from a company’s Web site
8.3 INTERNET MARKETING RESEARCH
Evaluate campaign results Measure costs and benefits of campaign
Helps with development of a budget for marketing activities
Identify growing and most profitable segments Marketing-research firms
Forrester Research, Adknowledge, Jupiter Communications and Media Metrix
A proper online market research helps a business in the following areas
Making advantageous marketing decisions in order to quickly align with market patterns in terms of users’ demands, habits and target audience.
Surviving the competition by knowing the activities and patterns of competitors in market. Analyzing the target audience and their product /services helps a business to take practical actions to attract the audience towards their brand.
Deciding the target market, before any launch of a new product it is desired to approach the concerned or target population first. Online market research helps to figure out the target population in order to achieve the high conversion rate of prospects to the customer.
Maximize profits with online research by gathering reviews of a product. This helps a business to attain the value of product in terms of money, which customers are ready to pay, and interestingly, it could be far higher than the current price.
advantages of online market research
Precision: Results approximation errors are usually low in online market research over conventional research because of digital computation of data and research patterns.
Cross border activity: International census and research data about a product or service can be gathered in order to study the impact and performance, overseas. It can provide a hint about the habits and responses of population to a particular product in a large area.
Fast: Data analysis and data collection can be easy and fast using online market research. Storage and retrieval of digital data gives a pace to the process of
analysis. A company providing IT Infrastructure services recently conducted a poll to understand the sentiment of people regarding the use of cloud applications. A sample of 10,000 people attended the poll in just 2 days and the company had all the information they needed.
Reliable: Internet allows the collection of proper and correct set of data results with an automated system of data collection. It reduces the cases of human-error in data and any other kind of discrepancy and redundancy.
Disadvantages:
Slow internet connections can cause difficulties. If the companies build too complex or too large websites, it will take too long for users to check them or download them and they will get bored eventually..
The e-commerce doesn’t allow the user “to touch” the merchandise before purchasing it. Because of this, some salesmen are starting to guarantee the possibility of returning the product. In Germany, where a law that regulates e-commerce and guarantees the customers the total refund of the money exists since 2000, the electronic commerce is very popular.
Other factor is the payment: many users still don’t trust in the electronic methods of paying and give up buying online because of this.
One of the major disadvantages may be the lack of trust of the users because of the constant virtual promotions that appear to be frauds. This is an aspect that deteriorates the image and reputation of quality and honest companies.
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