There is a revolution taking place in market research, according to speakers at the ESOMAR Panel Research Conference held in Dublin.

Delegates at the two day event heard speakers from Europe and the United States present details of the development of online research using commercially created research panels and the communities that develop around special interest websites.

In a paper entitled Turning the Supertanker Catherine Garland of GFK outlined the voyage her company took in moving from pen and paper postal questionnaires through computer aided telephone interviewing to an online methodology. Postal and phone methods were failing to pick up the younger and more upmarket consumers that online surveys can deliver.

Gated communities and empty houses frustrate the efforts of door-to-door interviewers who can no longer rely on someone being at home during the day. Market research is moving online and the move brings both opportunities and challenges for the market research industry.

From the research buyer’s point of view online surveys bring significant cost and time reductions. You get results almost immediately and can keep building until you reach your quota. The cost savings in terms of questionnaire printing, interviewer resources, data punching and so forth are self-evident. Even phone based surveys are expensive and time consuming by comparison.

On the challenge side research clients are concerned about the quality of the findings they are getting back from online surveys. To help clients in this regard ESOMAR has published a booklet containing twenty six questions you should ask when buying online research. The booklet can be accessed on www.esomar.org or email colm@thersearchcentre.com.

Discussion at the Dublin conference identified panel respondent integrity as the key issue worrying buyers and users of online data. Who exactly is the person filling out the questionnaire? Quality control lies firmly in the hands of the panel owners most of whom use specifically designed tracking systems to identify respondents and to weed out fraud.

Tracking ISP addresses, response styles and incentive postal addresses help to uncover fraudulent respondents but these add layers of cost to the process and can be bypassed by determined fraudsters.   The big split in online research lies between panels developed specifically for selling to research buyers and online communities based around general and special interest websites that can be accessed for surveys relevant to community members.

A good example of the latter was explored by Cheryl Wilbur and Leslie Rimmel who provided insight into the workings of MomConnection.com, a website dedicated to Mothers of young children.

As a community based site MomConnection.com runs surveys for owners of products and services designed for mothers-to-be and mothers of pre-teenage children. The key to success according to Wilbur and Rimmel, lies in running short, relevant, single subject surveys that produce high quality considered responses.

In many cases the research buyer will probably benefit from exploring the options offered by both commercially developed on line panels and relevant community based panels.   Anyone who has a website that requires visitors to log in with personal details has a readymade panel.

If a single interest website owner asks members to take part in a relevant survey participation rates will be higher and findings probably more valuable than if a general panel approach were used. The community ethos improves response rates and quality. No matter what business you are in or how you currently conduct your market research you should familiarise yourself with the advantages offered and challenges posed by online methodologies.

If you are planning for the future you should look carefully at the opportunities coming down the line for online mobile research. As more phones become online enabled improved screen sizes and operating systems will allow your customers to take surveys on their daily commute, while waiting for a friend or at any time they find themselves with time to fill.