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The Journey from Access Panels to Communities

The past decade has been marked by two revolutions in market research and both are associated with the internet. The first is the move to online research, especially to access panels. Access panels are collections of people who have volunteered to take our surveys. Access panels have allowed us to provide speedy, cost effective research, using the compelling, visual medium of the internet.

The second is the growth of social media. Consumers are no longer passive. They are empowered; they socialise online; they get instant information about brands, often over their mobile. In this new social world the key question is who owns the brand? Brand owners are now part of a real time conversation where customers’ experiences and a brand’s performance are transparent for all to see. These new social media tools are moving us from access panels to increasingly socialised panels and to research based around communities, and they are one of the easiest ways for brands to converse with consumers.

Socialised panels are usually large scale. They are often built for our clients. You might think of them as proprietary access panels, but with a veneer of community that is added by using one or more online community tools such as forums, blogs, video and photo uploads, tag clouds, RSS feeds, wikis, profiles etc. But once we start to use these social media tools together we may create market research online communities (MROCs). What defines an MROC is a sense of a shared respondent presence and purpose. The big difference reflects the new world of social networks. In the traditional access panel model, only the panel owner knows that an individual is a member of the panel. In an MROC the identity of the respondents may be known to the other respondents due to the use of user names and through the building of reputations. This creates a shared presence in which relationships can be established between any of the participants, be they respondents, researchers, or clients, as they interact with each other.

One of the great benefits of creating an MROC is that we can allow the data to emerge. We are setting the research agenda but the respondents, clients and researchers are co-creating the flow of data, reacting to the unexpected from wherever it comes, and this can lead to unexpected and interesting insights emerging. For example we built a short term MROC for the UK Office of Fair Trading to explore the future. In the published report the OFT wrote “It is fair to say that the exercise has exceeded all our expectations … the consultation has been enormously valuable to us.” This was in no small part due to the creative interactions of our community members and the rich diversity of comments and suggestions that the community generated.

This is the power of research communities; they allow collaboration, co-creation, and most importantly conversation. At their heart is the reality of the brand holding open and creative conversations with its customers.

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GfK Research Summit 2010: The Digital Connected Consumer

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Considering the mobile phone as a research tool

Technology cycles tend to last about ten years, from the personal computing era of the ‘80s, through the desktop computing era of the ‘90s to the mobile computing era of the early 21st century. Each has brought more computing power, better user experiences, lower prices and expanded services to more people. And with every new technology comes new opportunities for the research industry. None more so than the saturation of mobile phone ownership and the increasing power and capabilities of the modern smartphones.

GfK has been investigating various ways that mobile technology can be leveraged for research purposes, and this is a brief introduction to a few of our recent initiatives.

Taking mobile-based surveys mainstream: a Nokia case study

Nokia challenged GfK to monitor their whole portfolio of digital channels, including both standard and mobile websites or online shops. This posed a number of challenges in developing an online survey that would work on both the mobile phone as well as the PC, across all possible brands and models of mobile phone, on the various different mobile operating systems, as well as in all the languages for the countries in which Nokia operates.

We achieved this by linking from a banner on the Nokia mobile sites to a mobile-web survey hosted by GfK, which adapted the content and layout depending on the country, language and phone model – information which was pulled from the Nokia server. While this survey needed to be focussed on key metrics only to manage interview length, we were able to develop a solution in-house that solved all of these challenges and we’ve now achieved over 100,000 completed interviews in less than a year.

A picture’s worth a thousand words: a GfK case study

With the proliferation of channels communicating brand messages to consumers in today’s world, there is a growing need to help businesses understand which are the most effective and how they interact. ‘Mobile Moments of Truth’ is a research tool being developed by GfK that uses the mobile phone to capture and collect the full range of brand experiences. Rather than waiting to ask consumers to recall all brand exposures during a given time frame, panellists are able to take an image using their mobile phone every time they see or experience a brand and give a short report on where, why and how they felt.

This is all achieved through a simple online survey tool which not only gives time sensitive, granular feedback, but also consumer-created images that give a real-life context for each experience.

If phone’s can be smart, why not research: a GFK and Revelation case study

As well as using the mobile phone for online quantitative research, GfK has been investigating its potential for qualitative approaches. In a recent project in conjunction with Revelation (a GfK partner for online qualitative research) a sample of iPhone and Google Android users in the US and UK were invited to take part in a five day online qualitative session about their phone and how they use it in their daily lives; using both their PC and their smartphone to participate in the study.

While most respondents would usually default to their PC when convenient or available, they were more than happy to complete tasks using their smartphone, and when doing so the length and quality of their responses were comparable across the two methods. And when you include the added benefits of response frequency and image.

Ian Ralph (GfK) and Steve August (Revelation) at GfK Client Summit 2010

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GfK Research Summit 2010: The Digital Connected Consumer

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Innovations in video improve business decision making

It’s an exciting time to be involved in the digital world; only recently we were still developing .mobi websites, now it’s an annoyance when we get forced to a .mobi on a smartphone browser. We were sending each other MMS messages, now we just email them directly from our email account. Our number one reason to upgrade a phone was for more mega pixels from the built-in camera, now it’s less about the hardware and more about software.

Such rapid changes in technology force the online space to adapt and change to suit how the user wants to access content, one area that has maintained a steady evolution is online video technology.

Despite confusion around how internet protocol television (IPTV) would evolve, issues around IPTV advertising and how it might be funded, the BBC i-Player ploughed its own furrow. Channels and websites soon began to follow, and this evolved quickly as pocket technology demanded faster download and streaming capabilities.
This not only led to dramatic improvements in how video is served up, but also the compression of video files and file sizes had to decrease in order to be utilised across these platforms, especially as affordable cameras began to introduce HDD technology.

Up until recently this technology did not match, so if you shot on a prosumer Hard Disc camera, then your only option would have been to roughly edit on the camera and burn the files to DVD for playback. It has recently become easier to convert these files (.vod or .mts) or drag them directly into an edit suite.
During these times of change it became evident that market and business intelligence can be delivered quicker and in a more impactful way. It’s been fascinating to see how quickly video has been adopted as an important medium to communicate data, research and insight across global businesses. In the work we do at GfK NOP video is now used at more stages of a research project than you could imagine 3-4 years ago.

At its most basic, video offers a personal touch, and validates data and research findings by offering feedback direct from a business’s customers. Examples of these are vox pops and extracts from focus groups embedded in a final report or presentation. Today’s technology means that vox pops can be cleverly incorporated into reports to produce powerful ‘voice of the consumer’ insights and the standard of video and clarity of audio have vastly improved.

However we are delivering far more of our knowledge and insight via video – from short films starring market experts at pitches, through to five minute report summaries encompassing animated text, graphical representations of reports with voice-over and an engaging sound track that holds the attention of the viewer.

The popularity of video in the business world is increasing over time as clients begin demanding more efficient ways of communicating and digesting information. A great example of this is the development of client video portals, a sort of a corporate YouTube platform, to combat the problem of large video files and improve the sharing of information by circulating hyperlinks.
The illustration below shows at how widely GfK NOP is using video across the lifecycle of a research study:

Looking to the future we see the use of video having far more impact than merely what you see in front of the lens as software technology improves; screen capture, Voice Over IP and bandwidth improvements all open up new video-in-research opportunities, adding multiple dimensions to usability testing, remote interviewing and focus groups, more personal online qual research and much more.

Exciting Opportunities for Mobile 3D?

3D stereo anaglyph picture, use red blue glasses to view anaglyphic photo

For the last year or so, 3D has been one of technology’s hottest topics, with the success of 3D movies paving the way for TV manufacturers, to the extent that two in five UK adults now express an interest in buying a 3D screen for their home. But what is the opportunity for mobile device manufacturers?

There has certainly been a lot of market activity (e.g. Sharp’s unveiling of a 3D mobile phone display) in anticipation of consumer demand, but will public enthusiasm migrate to mobile phone devices?

A recent GfK Technology survey, found that 12% of mobile phone users were interested in 3D photos and 8% were interested in 3D gaming. It is likely that the latter and any apps that embrace Augmented Reality or which offer the opportunity to enhance user generated content are going to drive most interest.

However, right now it’s a difficult call as to whether 3D on mobile will really drive the market. It’s up to the handset manufacturers to ensure the execution of the technology lives up to the hype.

To read a fuller article on this topic by Colin Strong, managing director of GfK Business & Technology, click here.

RESEARCH NOTES:

GfK NOP Technology conducted a survey among 996 UK adults in June 2010. The interviews were conducted online and are representative on UK adults who have access to the internet.

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3dstereopics
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The Green Technology Revolution

Smartphone technology paves the way for the market to adopt greener approaches. Encouraging greater use of mobile services helps to limit the need for multiple devices, extend the product lifecycle and offer consumers more ways of being green.

“Technology companies can never be green”. A casual comment dropped into conversation when discussing the idea of ‘green technology’. Of course, ‘green technology’ already exists in the form of multi-million pound, global scale projects that help reclaim water, produce renewable energy and generally help meet global climate change targets. Green technology, as it stands, does not mean the ‘greening’ of technology.

Making technology a little greener would mean creating a shift in the way that technology products – consumer ones that is – are used and consumed. My argument is that the first steps to any greening of the consumer technology space would be lengthening the product lifecycle. Today, the very nature of the market tells a tale of rapid uptake and obsoleteness; parts break or newer, quicker, more innovative versions come along leaving many devices left for good old Mr. Landfill. Looking at the wider consumer landscape, which is successfully adopting greener behaviour, it seems like the right time for technology to adapt.

Recent data from a GfK NOP Technology survey amongst a representative sample of UK adults* which asked about attitudes towards everyday technology products like MP3s, PCs and mobile phones revealed that obsoleteness is not a desirable feature. When it comes to mobile phones specifically, more than half (56%) say that they are more interested in keeping their device for longer. This offers an opportunity for the rapidly growing mobile services industry. More on this later.

The finding is reflective of wider concerns about the environment and suggests a growing demand for a greener technology market. In particular, 41% of consumers want to know more about what their mobile phone brand or network is doing to be more green in order to help make decisions about future purchases. Consumers now have more choices than ever before to help ‘being green’ more easy, but whether technology products can add to the offering remains to be seen.

Enter the smartphone, which according to Gartner, Inc saw sales growth of 48.7% across the global market in the first quarter of 2010. Smartphones bring mobile services to the lives of consumers which Mobile Marketer estimate will be worth $1 trillion by 2013. Services available through smartphone technology are already a valuable commodity for global technology companies including Apple, Microsoft, Google and Nokia who, despite raging patent war,s are rolling apps, music, messaging, maps and other everyday ‘services’ the mass market might desire over 3G and wireless networks.

The benefits of mobile services extend beyond helping consumers rely more on their mobile phones. In particular, our research reveals that 40% of consumers are more interested in updating the services they use on their mobile phone than the device itself. This figure is not only music to the ears of software developers, network providers and mobile manufacturers who are diversifying into this services market, but also to consumers looking for more ways of being green. Services can extend the product lifecycle through satisfying a wide variety of consumer needs when it comes to technology. They can be updated and replaced regularly and help transform mobile devices into a highly personalised experience. Not only this, but due to the way that they bring a variety of functions together, e.g. camera, music player, clock, etc, they reduce the need for multiple technology devices. All of which contributes a ’greener’ technology market.

However, mobile services can not only help limit environmental impact of products, they also encourage and enable greener consumer behaviour and offer more choices for a greener lifestyle. Nokia, the world’s leading mobile manufacturer, is helping demonstrate how. Kirsi Sormunen, Vice President of Nokia Environmental Affairs, says that the company is continuously looking at “new ways in which mobile technology can contribute to sustainable development,” as well as “ inviting consumers to the journey towards sustainability.” To support this they have created a series of videos demonstrating and hinting at ways that using a mobile phone with internet access is yet another way of ‘being green’.

The videos show mobile phones helping us to help the environment through reducing travel, browsing the internet and carrying an all-in-one device. Nokia is not new to the move to making technology more green. The company came top in Greenpeace’s guide to consumer electronics earlier in the year. Their progression from making the manufacture of handsets more green to making the relationship between consumers and their devices more green, is an encouraging move for the technology market.

With the rapid uptake of smartphones, according to Gartner Inc figures, 54.3 million units globally are already helping people use their mobile phones to access the internet and services, limiting the need for multiple and separate devices. A green revolution in consumer technology has already begun, particularly where consumers want to keep their mobile devices for longer. Despite the global giants of Google and Apple being the pioneers of smartphone technology, it is companies like Nokia who have already realised the environmental benefits of mobile services who are paving the way for the greening of technology.

Old media trumps new media on influencing the UK electorate

Social media campaigns via popular sites like Facebook may be able to get ‘Rage Against The Machine’ to Number One in the music charts but they will have little influence on the outcome of the 2010 UK general election. In contrast, the televised election debates will prove a powerful platform for the three main political parties.

GfK NOP Technology research conducted online (so we would also expect a skew towards online sources) shows that TV debates have the most influence on how we vote as a nation. Despite the fieldwork for our survey being conducted after only the first of three televised debates on 16 April, they are still the number one source of information for the election on 6 May.

As an example of this contrast, official viewing figures suggest that around 8.4m viewers watched the third debate, vs. 3.2 m UK visitors to the BBC news website (with 350,000 streaming the debates online).

Interestingly, a similar number of people had watched party political broadcasts and election news (45%) as the TV debates (49%) but their influence varies considerably. Of those who watched TV debates 26% said that they had had the biggest impact on who they would vote for. Conversely, for party political broadcasts or election news on TV, this fell to just 10%.

In an election where it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between the parties and navigate through the spin, the TV debates have provided a platform for UK voters to truly assess each party. The TV debates put the party leaders on the spot, not in terms of questioning, (I’m sure they’re fully briefed) but in the way they respond to each other.

Debates offer the chance to see the personality behind the policy (or perhaps a carefully sculptured version of that image), which is more than can be offered by a written press release. Although the three candidates are still mainly dealing in easily-digestible sound bites, the televised debates offer those members of the public who perhaps don’t have the time or the inclination to read the manifestos in depth to get a grasp on the key issues.

In contrast, internet sources lack the ‘live’ human connection the TV debates provide. Twelve per cent of the UK have read election news via broadsheets’ online news websites, but only two per cent of this group say that it was the biggest influence on their vote. The main social media site to register any influence was Facebook, where six per cent of people had discussed politics, but only one per cent of this group said it was the most influential source of information about the election.

The lack of influence from social media could also be down to a lack of investment and understanding. The Conservative Party have probably considered this medium the most, but overall, all three main parties’ online and social media strategies are pretty poor. For example, there are no obvious attempts to link social media platforms, like Facebook, to party promotional material. Furthermore, Labour MP Stuart MacLennan showed a complete lack of understanding about how Twitter works (you say things that are controversial… it spreads pretty quickly) and was consequently sacked for inappropriate comments.

Whether it’s a lack of interest from the public or a lack of understanding by UK political parties, online and social media will have little influence on how people vote on 6 May. Despite this, we strongly believe that new media will play a bigger role in future elections, just as it is increasingly influencing other areas of society.

For all those interested in the data from this survey you can view it here

RESEARCH NOTES:

GfK NOP Technology conducted a survey among 1279 UK adults between 16^th and 21^st April 2010. The interviews were conducted online and are representative on UK adults who have access to the internet.

GfK TechTalk

Independent technology research and opinion

Considering the mobile phone as a research tool

Innovations in video improve business decision making

Exciting Opportunities for Mobile 3D?

The Green Technology Revolution

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