Ad Industry Set To Unveil Online Quality Research Initiative: Wants It Fast, Cheap And Good

Like much of the rest of marketing, online media has transformed the way big companies conduct their consumer research, supplanting traditional mail, telephone and various in-person survey methods with online polls that generate much faster and cheaper results, but which may be generating insights of questionable quality. In an effort to address the rapid rise of online research studies and their impact on marketing decisions, the Advertising Research Foundation will unveil plans for the first coordinated industry initiative focused on the quality of online research.

The effort comes amid growing concern that market researchers may be abandoning long-standing quality controls in favor of quick, easy and relatively inexpensive online research methods whose insights may in many cases be worse than no research at all.

"The rigor and discipline that characterized sampling plans of the 70s and 80s is missing in the online era," says Stan Sthanunathan, vice president-knowledge & insights for the Coca-Cola Co., and one of the supporters of the new Online Quality Research Council being kicked off today by the ARF. "Are the control mechanisms that we have in place adequate to ensure quality? What is the equivalent of traditional back checking in the online research era?"

The effort also comes amid growing concern about the quality of online audience measurement from syndicated research firms like comScore and Nielsen//NetRatings, that has led the Interactive Advertising Bureau to form a separate initiative to address that, but ARF President-CEO Bob Barocci says the new council has nothing to do with that. Instead, he says the OQRC will establish committees comprised of top marketers and leading consumer research suppliers to address the methodological issues associated with online surveys and establish standards and guidelines for conducting and using such research.

Barocci says concerns have been mounting amid anecdotal findings from major marketers, such as one presented last year by Procter & Gamble consumer researcher Kim Dedeker, who showed results of a half dozen online research studies that "could not be replicated."

"This is being driven by speed and cost. Now it's time to address the quality issues," says Barocci who estimates that as much as one third of all consumer marketing research may now be conducted via some form of online surveying.

The new council already has formed a steering committee comprised of senior syndicated researcher executives including TNS' Robert Tomei, Ipsos-NA's Efrain Ribeiro, NPD Group's Steve Coffey, comScore's Josh Chasin, Synovate's Jonathan Jephcott, and Harris Interactive's Renee Smith. The council will be managed by a rotating chairperson selected from the steering committee members for a six month period, and TNS' Tomei has been voted the initial chair.

Barocci says the council is in the process of reaching out to top marketers and hopes to have an announcement soon about that. "This is very much an advertiser-led issue," he says, noting that the insights from such research are driving advertising, marketing and other critical business decisions.

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