Eureka! Future of b-to-b research is online
Published on 09/24/2001 under Potpourri
I have seen the truth, and my eyes are opened wide.
My epiphany is of a sort we’ve been reading about in Marketing News and other business publications. Some of us might even have been curious enough to attend a presentation. But most marketers probably also think it’s not quite ready for prime time.
But I’m here to tell you it’s real and that the future of business-to-business marketing research has arrived. I’m talking about online, Internet-based research, and it’s replacing telephone interviews and mailed surveys just as sure as you can say “Alexander Graham Bell.”
I know I’m on shaky ground writing about marketing research to readers of Marketing News because so many of you specialize in that discipline. I generally apologize first and hedge my observations, but this time, I’m 100% sure. There’s no way the old techniques can survive once research practitioners and clients become comfortable with Web-based software and methodologies. The savings in time and money are just too significant, not to mention the user-friendliness of online surveys.
And while this information is old news to many researchers, online and otherwise, too many marketers still are sitting on the sidelines waiting for the technology to prove itself. Not more than 10% of all the marketing dollars spent is spent on online research, according to Larry Gold, editor of Inside Research newsletter.
But I was converted by Gabe Gelb, founder and senior consultant with Houston-based Gelb Consulting Group Inc. marketing research and consulting group. For five years, Gelb has conducted an annual survey of commercial office building tenants for Hines Property Management, part of the extensive Hines real estate development and management empire also based in Houston. The first four studies were done by mail to more than a thousand tenants in Hines buildings throughout North America. This year, the firm offered respondents a choice of going online and completing the survey electronically (even though they were holding a mailed copy of the survey form as they considered the online invitation). Ultimately, 40% of the tenants completed the password-protected survey online, which resulted in an amazing 71% response rate.
“Because the Hines managers were concerned that electronic data might differ significantly from questionnaires filled out by hand, we tabulated the paper and Web responses separately,” Gelb says, noting that there was no statistical difference in the two subsets.
Another interesting aspect of the survey was that each Hines property manager could view the results for his property online and compare them to regional and national averages. According to Don Emerson, manager of operations and engineering for Hines, the electronic reporting capability pulls together the far-flung Hines team.
Online research works for more conventional surveys, too. Gelb has had success offering gift certificates to opt-in e-mail recipients meeting demographic requirements; the chance to win a $50 or $100 Amazon.com gift certificate is popular, he says. The firm typically budgets $500 for these incentives and builds the cost into the total survey budget.
Speed is another advantage of online surveys. Gelb has observed that 75% to 80% of a survey’s targeted response can be generated within 48 hours using online methodologies. Compare that to a telephone survey I recently was involved in for one of my clients: It took almost 70 days to obtain 150 interviews. Voicemail in corporate America has created an almost impenetrable barrier to most professional survey candidates.
On the other hand, more than 60% of U.S. households now have internet access, and I’m sure the number is approaching 100% for businesses. Having an e-mail address is almost as important as having a telephone number, so while you may have some excuse for dragging your heels on online research for mass consumer audiences, the time for reaching business-to-business audiences via the Web has arrived.
But don’t limit your thinking to external customer audiences. Gelb showed me highlights of an elaborate online survey for a large oilfield services company that solicited feedback on a new technical support program from thousands of employees spread over five continents. Not only was the company able to quickly and efficiently measure employee satisfation with the program and identify areas for improvement, but users helped quantify actual savings to the company from the program in the tens of millions of dollars. Not a bad number to have during the budgeting process for next year.
Gelb has also used self-directed, computer-linked research techniques at industry trade shows. You have to rent a booth and get permission from show management, but it’s a great opportunity to amass valuable information from hard-to-reach technical customers and prospects as they wander down the aisle. You’d be surprised how many of these otherwise-too-busy people will give you their opinions and insight for an inexpensive trinket.
Business and technical people are comfortable clicking boxes and scrolling down electronic questionnaires, and Gelb even shows a “percent completed” bar at the top of each page so respondents can mentally calculate how much more of their valuable work time is required to finish the survey. When the invitations are e-mailed, respondents can participate when they want, vis-à-vis telephone interviewers who demand that they participate now.
There’s no question in my mind that this is the future of b-to-b marketing research. For a rapidly increasing number of practitioners, that future is now.