In defence of ResTech: The case for new technology

While scanning through the musings of the great and the good in the world of market research, I have noticed new technologies receiving increasing levels of criticism regarding the impact – or purported lack thereof – they have on our industry. I personally find this a strange stance to take, sweeping a very large brush over what is a vast and constantly changing field.

I very much doubt we would still exist as a significant, revenue-generating sector in the global marketplace without the technological advancements made over the past 20 years. Therefore, while a critical eye should be welcomed for any heralded innovation, we may benefit from a bit more of a balanced perspective.

I struggle to think of a better example of how technology has enabled the democratisation of data than the advent of online market research. If I was to distil the value delivered into three core themes they would be: access, engagement and impact.

Access
A fair criticism levelled at data in general is the extent to which it can be acquired and leveraged at the right time, in the right place for effective commercial decision making. Consumer market research, for example, has always been exposed to this, due to the finite number of opinions sought after and the cost of doing so.

Digital collection methods have not only removed barriers to access but have also exponentially increased the universe to be engaged with. While traditional access panels will always have their limitations, the technology available today has considerably reduced the complexity and cost of ongoing management, allowing for appropriate audiences to be empanelled and engaged much more easily.

It is through new channels where technology has had its biggest impact, however, with API-driven programmatic sampling opening up a whole audience. In addition, social media platforms have not only brought interesting audiences together, in a manner that can be easily profiled and targeted, but they have also provided new ways to directly engage with respondents outside of email and SMS.

Engagement
I think it is fair to say, in the infancy of online market research, technology was used for anything but positive engagement with respondents. While we are in a place now where deploying a survey more than 10 minutes in length is becoming as much of a research faux pas as a leading question, in this world of fragmented attention, every minute that can be saved counts more than ever.

This is where questionnaire design innovation and improved user experience via research software has had a significant impact on keeping audiences engaged. Whether it is as simple as avoiding the dreaded grid in favour of carousels, or using sliders instead of open numeric responses, any tactic that improves the general experience of taking a survey is a win.

A good example is gamifying reactions to stimuli using animation, such as virtual shelves that are becoming the norm in shopper research. Video and voice capture, coupled with advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) driven text and sentiment analysis, also provide a vision for the future, where open questioning is more viable and efficient at quantifying consumer insights.

Impact
Collecting data is a rather futile exercise commercially if it cannot be quickly deployed to support decision making and show a return on investment. Traditionally, the time it took for analysis and reporting of advanced methods meant that for in-the-moment tactical decisions, there was no choice but to rely on analogues and gut feel. With the advent of machine learning and AI, in conjunction with data, technology and the statistical talent of experts, we are now seeing that process be completed in days. Given it previously took six weeks end-to-end, this is not an insignificant difference.

Cloud computing has also presented an opportunity to leverage more value from data, as it can both house and process vast amounts at a reasonable cost. The ability to more efficiently fuse market research data with other big data sources, i.e. point of sale data, has opened up new avenues for combining consumer insight with observed behavioural data. This offers researchers a more accurate and accessible view on customer journeys.

I will caveat this with the caution that as good as AI and machine learning are at speeding up traditional processes, the output only remains accurate with a continuous supply of up-to-date and relevant consumer data.

Conclusions
These core themes are a massive oversimplification of the impact technology has had on market research, with the examples given merely scratching the surface of what has been achieved.

As our industry continues to grow, so should our desire to use technology to advance and innovate. It is my view that technology should be evaluated through the lens of continuous improvement, as the idea it has failed market research is in no way credible.

Ben Walton is chief commercial officer at Walr