Telephone research in Asia - the wave of the future?

Editor’s note: Bjorn Huysman is chairman of ACR, a Hong Kong research firm, and research director international at NIPO, a Netherlands research firm.

Marketing research in Asia is in its late childhood. Whereas 10 years ago virtually no research was done in Asia, we now clearly see a booming and professionalizing industry. With this growth comes growing pains. The parents of this industry (mostly Westerners) have to support their children as they mature.

In terms of research expenditures, Asia is still a low-key market, compared to Europe and the U.S. Whereas in Asia a marketing research agency with 40-50 people can be considered one of the leading agencies, in Europe and the U.S. it would only be a small agency. Certainly, with the present crisis in Asia, local expenditures will be cut. The larger research agencies and agencies with a lot of local business will feel the crisis for sure. Nevertheless, we see U.S. and European clients continuing to conduct research in Asia.

Clients interested in research in an emerging market like Asia often prefer to apply their existing research approaches to new markets. This is true for the questionnaire as well as for the method of research. Traditionally, virtually all research in Asia has been done face-to-face, due to the lack of telephones and the cultural unacceptability of giving strangers information over the phone. However, telephone research - by means of CATI - is highly preferred by many Western clients, especially when taking into consideration the size of some Asian countries and the lack of infrastructure (both in telecommunication, trained staff and roads) - all of which makes the thought of a face-to-face approach quite scary.

But is it possible and feasible to conduct telephone interviews in Asian countries? Are there agencies equipped with CATI to cope with the complicated questionnaires? The answer to both questions is yes.

The hardware

When we think of Asia we think of a lack of infrastructure, which includes a lack of telephone lines. Obviously, if consumers don’t have a telephone, you can’t reach them. But while it seems that most Asian countries have low to fairly low telephone penetrations, countries like Hong Kong (and do not make the mistake of treating Hong Kong as China; Hong Kong is a separate market), Singapore, South Korea and Japan have Western-like telephone penetrations. Countries like Indonesia, Thailand and China are quite different. Yet, taking China as an example, telephone penetration in the big cities exceeds 40 percent already, which seems to make telephone research feasible from a hardware point of view.

In most Asian countries consumers start with mobile phones rather than a fixed ground line. For telephone research, this means that telephones are much more of an individual - rather than a household - feature. The fact that individual consumers have their own telephones implies first of all that they are "always" reachable, secondly that samples are not household-based anymore and thirdly that randomly calling consumers may mean that we call them during a business meeting, a subway ride, or a romantic dinner.

In Hong Kong we see a very high telephone penetration among consumers (both fixed lines as well as mobile). In Hong Kong, carrying out telephone research is very well accepted and actually often the only way to carry out research. Clearly, Hong Kong is now used to telephone research and participation is quite equal to responses in Europe. Some 97 percent of Hong Kong is Chinese, which gives us some trust that, in the end, Asian people do not object to giving information to strangers by phone (though some questions may have to be phrased differently than in a Western environment). In time, telephone research will become accepted.

In China, calling any consumer and asking questions for research would certainly not lead to getting the information. People wouldn’t participate at all. It would be considered rude. Perhaps, as we’ve seen in Hong Kong, that perception will change.

Resistance to change

Change is something that in most societies leads to resistance. Two years ago, before we installed a CATI facility in our company in Hong Kong, we asked around. Would it work? Could it work? Looking back, it is no surprise to me that everybody we asked quite clearly and without hesitation said: no, telephone research in Asia is not possible.

Good for us that we where pigheaded enough to go for it anyway.

In talking to clients at the Advertising Research Foundation conference in New York earlier this year I noticed that clients wanting to do research in Asia met similar problems. They had asked their counterparts in Asia if they could do such and such study in this way in China, South Korea or Hong Kong and generally the answer was no.

We have been carrying out business-to-business research using CATI in literally all Asia-Pacific countries (all centrally from Hong Kong using native-speaker interviewers), including Japan, where most people would say telephone research is impossible.

Well, I can tell you telephone research in Japan is very much possible. Why does everybody tell you it is not possible? Again it may be the reluctance to try new things. Yet, it is good to see that some Japanese research agencies have started CATI facilities.

A lot of Asian telephone fieldwork at this moment is done from outside the country being interviewed. Why? There is a general lack of experience and there simply aren’t many telephone fieldwork facilities in Asia. If telephone fieldwork is being carried out locally, it is still often on paper and the amount of telephone work agencies get is still limited. Most local agencies believe CATI will come but they also feel the investment is still too big. It’s a chicken-or-the-egg problem. Western (co-) owned agencies seem be willing and financially powerful enough to make the investment. Among these agencies CATI has been entering the market only during the last few years.

Which agencies are able to offer CATI? As telephone interviewing is new to most local agencies, the larger and/or more Western-oriented agencies have picked up telephone research and CATI approach easiest.

The chart on below gives a sampling of agencies in Asia offering CATI and through which software. The grid is based on different sources. I have tried to be as extensive as possible but due to the number of small agencies in Asia, the list is not complete.

Which Agencies Offer CATI, How Many Stations And Through Which Software

Where do we go from here?

In summary, our experience has shown that business-to-business research in Asia is very feasible. We even find levels of cooperation between 60 percent and 80 percent (even in IT studies), which in any Western country would be unthinkable. Consumer research is already possible in most Asian countries. The chart below shows where telephone consumer research is possible at this moment.

The Feasibility of Consumer Telephone Research in Asia

In all countries it remains important to realize that telephone penetrations are generally lower than in Western countries. However, keeping in mind that telephones are often present at households with spending power, interviewers are often talking to your target groups. As long as all involved keep this framework in mind, it is clear that telephone research is the future in Asia.