Editor's note: Jerry W. Thomas is president and CEO of Decision Analyst, an Arlington, Texas research firm. He can be reached at 817-640-6166 or at jthomas@decisionanalyst.com. This article appeared in the July 8, 2013, edition of Quirk's e-newsletter.
The earth is shifting beneath our feet. Smartphones, iPads and tablets combined have surpassed PCs in number of units shipped annually. These devices - and the new technologies embedded in them - represent tectonic shifts in research possibilities. Despite the shock and rubble of tectonic upheaval, new opportunities are emerging.
Before we get too excited, let's keep in mind that the new possibilities are just that: possibilities. Mobile devices and technologies are not a magic panacea. We should not expect miracles or a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. However, if we apply the new possibilities wisely and use them in conjunction with tried-and-true research methods, they just might help us identify fresh solutions to a range of marketing problems.
So what are some of these new mobile capabilities brought forth by smartphones and tablets? While capabilities vary across the different types of devices, most contain many or all of the following features.
Web access: While not new, this is a universal smartphone and tablet feature and it powers many of the devices' technical capabilities. Pictures, videos and survey responses can be transmitted at almost any time and place.
Camera: The camera itself is not new but its ubiquity is. Respondents can take pictures and incorporate them into survey responses.
Video camera: Most new smartphones have at least some video recording capacity. Respondents can record videos of their offices, homes or an activity or event and make the recording part of their answers to a survey.
GPS: It is now possible to trace the geographic movements of an individual - or thousands of individuals - and plot their traffic patterns through shopping centers, neighborhoods or cities. Also, surveys can be triggered at particular geographic points (i.e., a store, billboard, etc.) and certain apps allow a respondent to check in when entering a store or location. By marrying GPS with databases of retail stores' GPS coordinates, it's possible to know which stores have been visited. Of course, respondent permission is essential for any type of GPS tracking.
Scanner: Consumers can scan the barcodes of products they own, buy or are considering buying at the store. This provides more accurate data about product purchase and usage at the SKU level of detail, compared to traditional survey data.
QR codes: These codes in ads, brochures or at the point of purchase can trigger surveys when scanned by smartphones.
Dictation: Consumers can record their feelings and observations by dictating to a smartphone or by calling an IVR number. This smartphone feature also allows the respondent to capture (to some degree) sounds in a retail store, doctor's office or elsewhere.
QWERTY keyboard: This keyboard makes open-end questions less tedious, though no more than one or two per survey is recommended. Younger users, of course, have better skills at smartphone keyboards and tend to do better at open-ends than older users.
Near-field communication (NFC): This system permits radio communication between a smartphone and some other device, simply by bringing the two close together. Radio communication between a smartphone and an unpowered NFC chip is also possible. The potential applications of this technology are numerous. The most visible applications at present are smartphone payment systems such as Google Wallet, designed to replace traditional credit cards.
Applications in qualitative research
The smartphone - and tablets to a lesser degree - are godsends to qualitative researchers. Participants in qualitative projects can respond on the go or while visiting particular stores or geographic locations. Participants can record and transmit voice, pictures, video and sounds. The smartphone makes ethnographic studies especially valuable. Respondents can verbally record reactions on the spot and later transmit these recordings or call into an IVR system to record reactions. Diaries can be maintained on respondents' smartphones during an ethnographic project. Some common qualitative applications include motivational explorations, product usage explorations, shopping investigations, customer experience studies and event marketing projects.
Applications in quantitative research
Mobile devices have displays and touchscreens that make simple surveys easy to answer on the fly. If it is important to know what someone is thinking or feeling at a particular place or point in time or while engaged in a specific activity, mobile devices provide the means of immediate measurement.
The traditional online survey, if concise and simple in design, works perfectly well on smartphones and tablets. Mobile surveys and traditional online surveys can be mixed and overlapped, depending on the target market, to achieve more representative sampling. Here are some examples of the range of studies that can be conducted via mobile devices.
Usage diaries: Since smartphones are carried everywhere at all times, they can become a constant diary where products purchased and consumed can be recorded where the purchase and/or consumption of products can be immediately recorded (and barcodes can be scanned). This yields extremely accurate usage data, compared to reliance on respondent memory.
Traffic patterns: GPS allows tracking of respondents' whereabouts and movements. This is useful in site location analyses, traffic flow analyses and media selection.
Surveys triggered by GPS: For example, the impact of outdoor advertising might be measured by triggering a mobile survey after respondents pass by a billboard. Surveys about a shopping experience could be triggered as respondents leave a retail store.
Brand-share data: A sample of smartphone users could be recruited to scan the barcodes of all grocery products purchased within a given time period or all the brands in one's refrigerator, for example. This provides accurate brand-share or brand inventory data.
Out-of-stock analyses: A thousand randomly-recruited smartphone users could photograph the peanut butter displays in their supermarkets. These photos could be analyzed and out-of-stock levels measured by type and location of stores.
Management alerts: Smartphones and tablets can be programmed so that customer service issues identified by satisfaction surveys are automatically e-mailed to appropriate store managers or supervisors for remedial actions.
Younger audiences: Teenagers and younger adults are easier to reach via smartphone than traditional e-mail to a PC. Smartphones can complement traditional online surveys to help increase response among younger respondents.
Closer to good decisions
Mobile software, smartphones and tablets are merely data collection devices. New data collection methodologies rarely move us closer to the truth or closer to good decisions. Good decisions result from sound research design and insightful analyses of the resulting data.
Like other data, mobile data must be studied in light of business imperatives, marketing objectives, the competitive environment, sampling limitations and research design constraints. In the end, it's all about thinking and analytics so that mobile data can be translated into useful intelligence and solid strategic decisions.