Marketing Research at the Turn of the Decade: Four Key Trends that Affect Research

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Marketing Research at the Turn of the Decade
Four Key Trends that Affect Research

• Presentation to the Ottawa Chapter of
• the Marketing Research and Intelligence
  Association
• June 11, 2009

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Marketing Research Four Key Trends that Affect
Research

• Our Society Diverse in Many Ways
• The Future of Telephone Surveys Change is in the
  Air
• The Rise of Online Research
• Rethinking Online Research

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Diversity the following socio-economic
indicators of diversity will affect marketing
research- diverse in culture (country of
birth language(s) spoken)- diverse in education
(including level of literacy, numeracy)- diverse
in income- diverse in ageThese factors are
distributed unevenly across regions of Canada A
seven community comparison approach follows
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Our Diverse Society Large Centres, Not-so-large
Centres and Small Centres (in 000s)(2006 Census
of Canada)
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Our Diverse Society Immigrants Persons
Speaking Neither French Nor English at Home 1981
to 2006(Census of Canada)
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Our Diverse Society of Population in Seven
Centres that Cannot Speak Either of Canadas
Official Languages (2006 Census of
Canada)
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Our Diverse Society of Persons 15 Years or
Over with No Certificate, Diploma or Degree in
Seven Centres (2006 Census of Canada)
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Our Diverse Society of the Adult Population 16
and over at Proficiency Level 1 or Lower
Level 1 Prose  Literacy Ability to read
relatively short text to locate a single piece of
information
Level 1 Numeracy Simple, one-step operations
counting, sorting dates simple arithmetic
operations or understanding common or simple
percents such as 50.
Building on our Competencies Canadian Results of
the International Adult Literacy and Skills
Survey, Statistics Canada, 2003
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Our Diverse Society of Population 65 and Over
in Seven Centres Across Canada (2006 Census of
Canada)
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• The Future of Telephone Surveys Change is in the
  Air

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The Future of Telephone Surveys the Challenge of
Cell-Only Households
Sources Centre for Disease Control and
Prevention National Health Interview Survey
(NHIS), Mediamark Research Inc. and Statistics
Canada Residential Telephone Service Survey
(RTSS)
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Proportion of Households with Cell-Only, by
Region, December 2007
Sources Statistics Canada Residential Telephone
Service Survey (RTSS)
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The Rising Phenomenon of the Wireless Mostly
Household USA
Source Centre for Disease Control and
Prevention National Health Interview Survey
(NHIS)
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The Shrinking Landline Population Households in
the USA, December 2008
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Source Centre for Disease Control and
Prevention National Health Interview Survey
(NHIS)
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The Future of Telephone Surveys Other Challenges
Influencing Response Rates

• call screening
• expansion of the marketing research industry
• fatigue
• poor survey practices
• Best Practices in Public Opinion Research
  Improving Respondent Cooperation for Telephone
  Surveys http//www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/por/text/pebp
  tel-e.html

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The Future of Telephone Surveys Implications of
Declining Response Rates

• Cost of surveys to increase
• To date, validity of surveys not at risk
  (Ambrose and Halpenny, 2006)
• Extremely low levels (below 10) raise risk of
  non- response bias from hard-to-reach segments
  (young or below-average education)
• D. Ambrose, G. Halpenny, Whither Response Rates
  Do They Still Matter? Presentation to the MRIA
  Annual Conference 2006

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The Future of Telephone Surveys Implications of
Rising Proportion of Cell-Only Households

• RDD Sampling will no longer be a complete frame
• This is likely to be especially acute among
  single-person households, better-educated
  respondents and if US trendshold true in Canada,
  younger and lower-income
• Telephone samples will have to include cell
  numbers
• Impact on length of interview and costs

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• The rise of online research

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The Rise of Online Proportion of Billings for
Quantitative Research in Canada, 2006 and 2007
Source Marketing Research and Intelligence
Association
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Proportion of Canadians with Home Internet
Access1997 through 2007
Source Ekos Research Associates, Rethinking the
Information Highway
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4. Online Research Meeting the Challenge of a
Still Imperfect Instrument

• Nonresponse bias is the key issue rather than low
  response rates per se
• Hence, there is little empirical support for the
  notion that low response rate surveys de facto
  produce estimates with high nonresponse bias.
• Nonresponse Rates and Nonresponse Bias in
  Household Surveys
• Robert M. Groves
• Public Opinion Quarterly
• Volume 70/Special Issue 2006/Number 5/pp. 646-675

Maximum Reach of Landline vs. Online
New Technologies and Government of Canada
Communications, Agriculture and Agrifood
Canada,2008and Statistics Canada Residential
Telephone Service Survey (RTSS)
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Main Reasons for Not Using Internet

• New Technologies and Government of Canada
  Communications, Agriculture and Agrifood Canada,
  2008, 426 respondents who did not have access to
  the Internet (weighted), telephone survey

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Use of the Internet by Age GroupYes response
to Do you personally use the Internet? This
includes using e-mail
New Technologies and Government of Canada
Communications, Agriculture and Agrifood
Canada,2008, Telephone survey of sample of 1,718
respondents (weighted data)
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Comparison of Unweighted Telephone and Online
Samples with the Census by Age
New Technologies and Government of Canada
Communications, Agriculture and Agrifood
Canada,2008, Telephone and online samples
Statistics Canada, 2006 Census of Canada
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Use of the Internet by EducationYes response
to Do you personally use the Internet? This
includes using e-mail
New Technologies and Government of Canada
Communications, Agriculture and Agrifood Canada,
2008, Telephone survey of sample of 1,718
respondents (weighted data)
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Comparison of Unweighted Telephone and Online
Samples by Education
New Technologies and Government of Canada
Communications, Agriculture and Agrifood
Canada,2008, Telephone and online samples
Statistics Canada, 2006 Census of Canada
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Challenges

• Canadian society diverse
• Generation gap and wide disparities in education
• Literacy and numeracy
• Numerous issues facing telephone surveys
• Cell-only and cell-mostly households an issue

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Challenges (continued)

• Decline in landline coverage trails US
• Internet rising but lacks full coverage
• Nonresponse bias as well as low response rates
• Education and Age Factors