Peter Harris on broken market and social research

<a href="http://www.visioncritical.com/blog/author/peter.harris">Peter Harris</a> isn't afraid to tell a whole industry that they are doing a bad job at adapting to new challenges, technology, tools, and methodology. And we wholeheartedly agree.

Peter Harris isn't afraid to tell a whole industry that they are doing a bad job at adapting to new challenges, technology, tools, and methodology. And we wholeheartedly agree.

If market research was dying why are companies such as Google, Facebook and IBM trying to break/buy into market research? I read, I watch, I learn about business and I still do not see a better way to grow a business than to invest in frequently understanding your customer.

In his great article titled Market and Social Research – not broken…just bent Harris (who's the Managing Director of Vision Critical Australia/NZ) goes on proposing that "well managed and populated mobile communities are the future of research".

  • End of long form survey
  • Real-time 24/7 availability of data
  • Interesting engagements
  • Moving from interruption to enjoyment
  • Research interactions that create a "real want to get involved and tell your friends about it

As a mobile technology and panel company ourselves we can certainly get behind these ideas. We know that long surveys don't work on mobile (and their effectiveness is questionable even in other channels) and people answering the questions can and should be treated much more as participants than respondents. Well targeted, relevant and interesting survey can be part of company communications and marketing rather than something that people find a tedious task.

Harris' whole article is well worth a read, recommended.

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