Using Market Research in a Recession

Let’s face it. It’s tough out there right now for marketers. Companies are cutting marketing budgets to conserve money and market research is certainly on the chopping block. But in these uncertain times, its research that’s going to help companies figure out how consumer spending is changing and what they can do to get people to part with their hard-earned cash. This post by John Quelch from the Harvard Business Review provides some useful advice on how to make your market research dollars go farther. He advises companies to exercise a bit of skepticsm when taking research online and says:

“Online research is cheap, fast, and the wave of the future. Tools like SurveyMonkey allow non-expert users to create custom surveys in minutes. As an alternative to offline focus groups, custom online panels of consumers can be formed for qualitative research on new product ideas or new ads. Taking the do-it-yourself approach rather than outsourcing to a market research firm is attractive in a cost-cutting era, but you risk getting no more than what you pay for. The opinions of convenience sample of an enthusiastic online brand community may not represent all users.”

The advances that are being made right now in online research methodologies are really exciting. And they do give companies the opportunity to not only learn from but become part of the ongoing conversations that people are having about brands, companies and their products online. However, I wholehartedly agree that the “do-it-yourself approach” to online research carries with it some serious risks. I can’t tell you how many SurveyMonkey surveys I’ve come across that just make me cringe. At best, poorly concieved online research yields results that aren’t useful; and at worst, it yields results that are misleading or incorrect.