Online ‘must learn from US mistakes'

UK-- Reg Baker, the chief operating officer of Market Strategies International, has urged researchers in developing markets to learn from the mistakes the US industry made when online research was in its infancy.

Speaking at the World Advertising Research Centre's Online Research Conference yesterday, Baker emphasised the importance of properly understanding web users in places such as Brazil, Russia, India and China now that internet surveys are starting to gain traction there.

In the US, Baker said, there had been a failure to properly profile the country's online population in the early days, resulting in disproportionate percentages of different demographics in panels and a small number of respondents becoming responsible for a much larger portion of all online research.

Online research buyers have also had to contend with declining cooperation levels, fraudulent responses and poorly designed surveys, he said – issues that are now a top priority for all the major marketing and research associations.

“We must not have a ‘one-size-fits-all' approach,” Baker said, “There is an enormous opportunity [for online research] in emerging markets if it is done right.”

Author: James Verrinder