This prediction likely did not sit well with the market research software providers who have built their entire mobile offering on an app-based model. Some of these companies provide an app solution that is specific to one type of smartphone, while others provide multiple versions of their app to cover the most common smartphone OS platforms (e.g. Apple iOS, Android, Blackberry, etc.). Regardless of which smartphones their apps support, they all probably disapproved of Kinesis’ position. They were also probably quite happy to learn that the one millionth app milestone was achieved in December, that the apps market more than doubled in 2011, and that mobile users now spend more time using apps than mobile browsers.

Given last year’s explosive app development and predictions for further app growth in 2012, does Kinesis still believe that apps will fail to sustain prominence as a major mobile research tool in the coming years?

You bet. While apps continue to be developed at a furious pace, in reality the vast majority of them are used by a very small number of mobile subscribers. Additionally, app usage seems to be reaching a peak. The fact that app usage time surpassed mobile browsing time last year is largely attributable to only one company – Facebook – and recent data from app analytics firm Flurry indicates that app usage now appears to be slowing. A study last year by Localytics found that one in four smartphone apps is downloaded but never used again. For market research, respondents may very well download an app for a one-time project or to join a panel, but continuous respondent use is required in order to provide ongoing value to the researcher. And in order to maintain continuous use (aka “the engagement factor”), ongoing development is essential. Both initial and ongoing app development can be a substantial endeavor. According to Deloitte: to reach more than 90 percent of all apps users, a developer may need to create versions for five different operating systems (plus HTML5), five major languages, three different processor speeds, and four different screen sizes. In other words, 360 variants of a single app may need to be created in order to fully cover the global market.

Since most research studies require a diverse and representative sample, multiple versions of the app must be maintained to accommodate a diverse group of mobile subscribers. And even for the research companies that have these necessary development capabilities, another significant challenge exists in how to deliver the app’s functional enhancements to users. There is no assurance that respondents will download updates, and their failure to do so may result in significant usability and performance issues.

For these reasons and others, Kinesis stands behind our prediction. App solutions simply have more inherent limitations than mobile browser-based solutions. It is true that today’s mobile browsers have their own set of limitations, but with the advent of HTML5, mobile browsers continue to close the gap on desktop browsers. Over the next few years, the capabilities of mobile browsers will become increasingly powerful and will ultimately replace the need for the majority of research apps.  Now Kinesis is not claiming that ALL market research apps will become extinct – there will continue to be highly specific and targeted research initiatives that are better suited for custom app delivery – however the advantages of mobile browsers will result in their dominance for mobile market research. Further, since the browser-based approach has the ability to support all mobile devices, any market research company that spends money developing device-specific apps for solutions that can be more readily supported via a browser will be at serious financial disadvantage.

It will likely take another few years for HTML5 to roll out its complete feature set and gain wide adoption, but it will happen. Benefits in terms of device flexibility and cost, as well as factors such as lower battery consumption and ease of delivering functional updates, will ultimately win out.

Growing Demand for Kinesis Solutions Results in More Than 30 Percent Year-Over-Year Revenue Growth

AUSTIN, TX (January 23, 2012) - Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for future-proof market research software solutions, today announced more than thirty percent revenue growth for 2011 and the relocation its U.S. and U.K. offices.

This ongoing organic growth underscores Kinesis’ rising industry presence as the frontrunner for comprehensive, multimode market research software. With a solution suite that includes robust survey, panel management and online community solutions, Kinesis continues to attract prestigious market research and enterprise companies to its platform. During 2011 Kinesis successfully migrated more than 3 million panelists from other solutions to Kinesis Panel™, and also maintained its position as the worldwide leader for mobile survey software with more than 10 million mobile survey sessions executed via Kinesis Survey™.

“Last year Kinesis continued to demonstrate our strength not only in mobile survey research, but as a future-proof and fully integrated platform for all market research initiatives,” said Leslie Townsend, Kinesis President. “Kinesis’ agile and forward-thinking approach to solution development, coupled with our commitment to customer service excellence, is propelling the company to the forefront of market research software. Last year was our most successful to date, however we expect even greater success for 2012.”

Key 2011 achievements for Kinesis included the expansion of global operations with the opening of a European office, new strategic partnerships, and the debut of the industry’s first fully multimode panelist community solution. The company also unveiled a smartphone app with geolocation and barcode scanning capabilities, introduced QR code generation for both surveys and communities, provided Facebook survey integration, and added automated diary research campaigns to its panel management solution.

“Kinesis is proud to offer highly valuable survey and panel functionality that is not available in competing solutions, and a price point that provides the best ROI in the industry,” said Michael Swimelar, Kinesis CFO. “We expect 2012 to be another record year for Kinesis.”

To support Kinesis’ worldwide expansion, the company is relocating both its U.S. and U.K. offices this month. New office address and phone information is available here.
 
About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a multimode survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both mobile and web-based market research. Delivering intuitive, state-of-the-art applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX USA, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.

Whitepaper identifies key variables for successful management of market research online panels

AUSTIN, TX (Jan 11, 2012) - Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for future-proof market research software solutions, has published a new whitepaper entitled Future-Proofing Online Panels: A Multimode, Multisource Approach.

This whitepaper focuses on the changes that are occurring within the market research industry in terms of panel management strategy and implementation. It details the importance of expanding panel management practices to support new web-enabled device types including mobile phones and tablets, as well as utilizing new recruitment sources including river sampling and social media, to improve overall panelist recruitment and retention.

“Changes in consumer habits are dictating that online panels become more inclusive of new technologies and strategies,” said Kinesis President Leslie Townsend. “Since usage of mobile devices and social media tools continues to escalate within market research, Kinesis offers our new whitepaper to assist panel managers with the expansion of their panel functionality, and to ultimately improve the quality of their research.”

Topics addressed within the whitepaper include changes in panelist behavior, multimode device support, panel functionality, panelist recruitment/profiling/engagement strategies, and best practices recommendations. The Future-Proofing Online Panels: A Multimode, Multisource Approach whitepaper is available for free download on the Kinesis website here.

About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a multimode survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both mobile and web-based market research. Delivering intuitive, state-of-the-art applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX USA, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.

The market research industry initially viewed tablets as a valuable tool for general intercept survey research. Tablets offer the mobility of smartphones and the larger screen size and keypads of computers, making them well-suited for consumers to utilize on-site at retail and entertainment locations. What perhaps many researchers have not yet considered is that with 54 million tablets and e-readers sold last year, and some predictions that tablet sales will reach a quarter billion in 2015, these devices are becoming a valuable tool for almost ALL types of market research.

We at Kinesis have been advocating multimode research implementation for some time; the industry needs to routinely deliver surveys that can render across the primary web device spectrum – computers, mobile phones and tablets – because consumers utilize all of these device groups. The vast majority of survey invitations continue to be delivered via email, which necessitates the need for mobile- and tablet-enabled surveys since both mobile and tablet email viewership continues to rise. A recent study from ReturnPath cites a 73% increase in email opens on the iPad from April to September of 2011 as compared to the previous six months, and a 34% increase across all mobile devices in the same timeframe. And while webmail and desktop still dominate email viewership, ReturnPath’s findings indicated an 11% and 9% drop, respectively. It is realistic to believe that email viewership will continue to balance out across device types over the next few years, and if research respondents use a variety of devices to open emailed survey invitations, it is highly likely that they will also click on the link and attempt to take the survey using the same devices.

Given tablets’ hybrid functionality, it only makes sense that they will continue to expand their value for market research. While some survey projects are not well-suited for mobile phones (e.g. long/detailed surveys or those that include detailed images) or desktops (e.g. on-site completion requirements or mobile-specific studies), tablets are applicable to nearly all projects. The good news is that adding support for this device group does not include any real pain points for implementation, at least not for researchers who utilize a survey platform with inherent multimode capabilities and touchscreen support. Technology is moving faster and faster, and its advancements are getting harder and harder to predict. Perhaps another iPad will soon come to market and change the web landscape yet again, but it is safe to assume that tablets will have a predominant place in the market for some time. Researchers have no choice but to embrace tablets, because consumers certainly are.

Kinesis Now Offers Easy One-Click Access to Highly Advanced Data Analysis Tools by MarketSight

AUSTIN, TX (December 20, 2011) - Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for future-proof market research software solutions, today announced that Kinesis Survey™ now includes data export integration to MarketSight® analytics and reporting software.

MarketSight®, headquartered in Cambridge, MA, streamlines the data analysis process for market researchers. It provides intuitive solutions that enable users to create crosstabs, automatically run statistical significance tests, create powerful charts, view individual survey responses, and report results in a secure, web-based environment. The MarketSight® integration augments the broad reporting capabilities that are native to Kinesis Survey™, and offers Kinesis clients additional options to analyze survey data and present findings.

“Kinesis supports a highly diverse group of researchers with highly diverse data analysis needs,” said Juha Vehnia, Kinesis CTO. “Our ongoing desire is to provide Kinesis clients with the most innovative and flexible research technologies available, and this latest integration with MarketSight continues to support our goal.”

Kinesis Survey™ is a comprehensive online survey solution that enables the programming and execution of web surveys and mobile surveys, utilizing only one mode per project or utilizing both simultaneously for a multimode solution. Use of MarketSight® software is optional for Kinesis Survey™ clients; those who elect to utilize the software can export data directly from the survey solution and then access it within MarketSight®. MarketSight enables data to be transferred to and from its platform with several applications such as PowerPoint®, Excel®, PDF, SPSS® and SAS®.

“We are very pleased to combine the advanced analytics and reporting features of MarketSight with the comprehensive Kinesis Survey solution,” said Michael DeNitto, MarketSight CEO. “With this compelling integrated offering, the full range of client needs can be met in one survey platform.”

Additional information about MarketSight is available at www.marketsight.com.

About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a multimode survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both mobile and web-based market research. Delivering intuitive, state-of-the-art applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX USA, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.

The good news about this expansion is that the cost ratio of mobile sampling versus traditional sampling will begin to balance out in 2012, and over the next few years, mobile will actually drive down overall data collection costs. As researchers gain experience running mobile projects and optimize their mixed-mode survey design practices, costs will diminish. Additionally, many survey software providers including Kinesis discount mobile surveys as compared to web surveys simply because (in most cases) they are shorter and simpler to implement, and therefore utilize fewer people and computer resources. Naturally there will always be research projects that cannot / should not be delivered via mobile, but whenever possible device flexibility should be offered.

Furthermore, the utilization of a mixed-mode approach affords participants the flexibility to complete surveys whenever and wherever they choose, and will result in increased respondent recruitment and retention. This is a crucial benefit when we consider that the traditional online respondent pool is insufficient to meet industry needs today, and will be even more so a few years from now. The exclusion of mobile in sampling practices has already left a vast supply of potential respondents untapped.  For many potential respondents, especially those who fall into the highly desired Millennial generation, mobile is their preferred platform for web access (or perhaps their only platform). Device flexibility gets to the heart of the engagement process, and if we allow respondents greater options, in theory, panel churn will be reduced.  2012 looks to be a tipping point.

What does this mean for market research? Flash is still a great resource for creating visually-rich survey questions, but because the technology has only been (and only will be) designed for desktop survey-takers, researchers who still require the technology should take one or more of the following measures to ensure a proper respondent experience:

1. Implement automatic browser checks at the beginning of the questionnaire that disable respondents with unsupported browsers from taking the survey.
2. If the technology from #1 is unavailable, disclose to respondents on the first page of the questionnaire the specific browsers and devices for which the survey has been designed.

Of course the best way to ensure universal support and to eliminate “device bias” among your respondents is to use plugin-agnostic technologies like HTML, CSS, and Javascript that are supported by nearly all browsers and devices. As the HTML5 standard is finalized over the next few years, more and more resources will emerge (and have already emerged) that reproduce some of the visually rich and intuitive content that Flash has traditionally brought to the table. This technology standardization and defragmentation across platforms (desktop vs. smartphone vs. feature phone), coupled with the rapid smartphone adoption seen in developed nations, should provide researchers with a more streamlined design process for multimode surveys down the road.

Headquartered in London with an additional office in Madrid, Effective Research provides comprehensive online and mobile fieldwork services worldwide. Other main services include panel build and related panel management tasks. Founded by online market research industry experts, Effective Research sought to employ a more cutting-edge and highly flexible survey platform with which to expand its business. Kinesis Survey™ was evaluated along with solutions from four other leading survey software vendors, and Effective Research ultimately determined that the Kinesis solution best fulfilled its needs.

“From my experience, Kinesis Survey includes the best bits of several survey solutions and combines them into one,” said Alan Hargreaves, Director of Online Global Operations and Partner at Effective Research. “Kinesis provides market leading functionality, including advanced mobile technology, that was either not available or as robust in the other platforms we considered. Like Effective Research, Kinesis is very forward-thinking and we feel a great synergy between our two companies.”

“Kinesis is very pleased to have Effective Research as a client,” said Tariq Mirza, Kinesis Managing Director of Europe. “The Effective Research team is enthusiastic and offers extensive fieldwork and panel expertise, and a commitment to innovative research delivery.”

More information about Effective Research is available at www.effective-research.com.

About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a multimode survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both mobile and web-based market research. Delivering intuitive, state-of-the-art applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX USA, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.

There is no doubt that location technologies, just like social and mobile technologies, hold tremendous promise for market research. The possibilities for location-based surveys are vast, and could very well transform how the majority of market research is conducted in the future. A valid criticism of location-based technologies has been that they are still too imprecise for most applications in our industry, particularly when utilized indoors. Yet, many of the Geo-Loco speakers argued that location-tracking precision will continue to improve just like all SoLoMo technologies that offer value, and one day we will be able to accurately track consumers in a building, on a floor, and even near a product on the shelf. Just how far off this capability really is can be (and is being) debated, but it is coming.

Kinesis ran its first location-based research project back in 2007 utilizing geo-fencing, so it is a technology we have been evaluating for some time. Earlier this year we introduced a mobile research app designed for point-of-sale diaries that utilizes geolocation to identify where and when diary entries are made. While we have found it advantageous for certain types of projects, we do not feel location-tracking is yet ready for broad implementation in market research. Kinesis will continue to keep an eye on the advancements of location-based technologies and all things SoLoMo, and expand our solution suite accordingly in order to keep our clients at the top of the research game.

Be sure to stay tuned to privacy issues around geolocation – we will be posting more on this issue soon.

Due to a slight schedule shake up, Diane Hessan of Communispace presented “Online Communities: Mistakes, Misuses and Challenges” back-to-back with Felix Koch of Promise Communities, who presented “What’s Next? Five Predictions About the Future of Online Co-Creation.” This proved to be an ideal change because the two presentations offered a lot of synergy regarding how successful research communities operate today, and how they should evolve over the next few years.

During her presentation, Hessan shared some community best practice recommendations, as honed by Communispace’s extensive experience in running online communities for its clients. Some of her key takeaways were:

• Bigger is not always better – an ideal community size is 300-500 members, because as the number of members goes up, participation rates go down
• Communities should never be used simply as a means of delivering surveys – engagement is better sustained with multiple activities (an ideal split would be one third surveys / one third discussions / one third “other” activities)
• Researchers must remain focused on real listening instead of trying to create brand advocates – members want to feel invited to share their true opinions rather than be coerced into adopting ours, and they can always tell the difference (this argument could certainly apply beyond online communities to all research activities)

Next up, Koch offered his five predictions as to how online co-creation, which often occurs via research and social media communities, will change in the near future. He said co-creation will become more:

• Mobile – communities will have to support mobile interaction due to the escalation of mobile device use
• Engaging – competition for people’s online time will only get tougher and therefore communities must ensure they can attract and sustain attention
• Rewarding – as more participants become digitally literate and aware of the value they contribute, new incentive models will be constructed
• Playful – social games appeal to the online masses and are not limited to “gamers” anymore, therefore research gamification will continue to escalate
• Hybrid – communities will begin to combine both online and offline methods of communication to further enhance co-creation

The vast majority of the content from these two presentations aligns with Kinesis’ views as to the present and future of online research communities, and validates the future-proof functionality we built have into our new Kinesis Community™ solution. While market research online communities should not be utilized for all types of research, they do spur co-creation and provide insights that other research mediums cannot. Healthy and thriving communities are sustained by utilizing a community platform that is device-flexible, engaging, and highly advanced.

The argument has strong merit, but gamification has its own consequences as well, and this point was addressed in another ESOMAR 3D presentation, “How Far Is Too Far” by element54’s Bernie Malinoff.   Malinoff reported that the introduction of gaming scenarios, and Flash, significantly lengthens the time that it takes a respondent to complete a survey – and many in the industry feel that surveys are already too long. It also introduces new forms of data bias, including forms that we are not even aware of yet, because of rapid technology change. When table grids are replaced with sliders, results will not benchmark. Gamification requires great creativity to be successful, but it doesn’t scale, and Malinoff argues for efficiency and scalability in research design.

Ultimately, research projects have always come down to costs and timing.  “Out of the box” programming is not truly possible in gamification, and therefore gamification is going to require a new resource set in the industry – one which will result lengthier programming time and increased costs, because all programming will be customized. But if the gamified surveys are sufficiently interesting, the participants may become voluntary (although this implies non-representative).  If gamification becomes a mainstream market research methodology, the research experience – both for participants and for researchers – will be very different than it is today.

Email. Just as is the case with desktop surveys, email is a predominant survey invitation method used in mobile research, and rightfully so. Email is a very inexpensive invitation option, recipients are highly familiar and use it regularly, and delivery times can be precisely scheduled. Email remains a strong and perhaps the best option for multi-mode (web/mobile) studies in that it provides respondents with the ultimate flexibility to decide when, where and via what device they will participate.

There is also an email-to-text option that uses the built-in email address specific to each mobile phone rather than the recipient’s third-party email application, but since many mobile subscribers do not know and do not use their mobile email address, Kinesis does not generally recommend this option. While it can be useful in camera phone ethnographies and mobile diaries, today’s mobile devices are sophisticated enough to utilize the third-party email applications for these projects, and therefore this invitation mode is becoming obsolete.

SMS.  SMS is a widely used mobile communication method, particularly among younger mobile subscribers, and enables the survey invitation to be sent as a text message. SMS short codes are well-suited when targeted recipients’ mobile phone numbers and email addresses are not known, and are currently the most popular option for recruiting feedback at public venues because they are fast/easy to type and automatically return the survey URL (or other content). SMS is a highly immediate option, yet it can be expensive. Per-usage fees are often required which can make implementation undesirable if the sample size is large, and may involve usage fees for the respondents themselves (although there are some new free-to-recipient SMS services emerging – the MR industry should keep watch here). Additionally, in Europe and other places where GSM network standards are used, WAP Push is available. WAP Push utilizes an encoded message which can be used to send links that open up directly in the mobile browser, and has proven to have higher completion rates than basic SMS.

MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). MMS is like SMS but it can also send sound, images and video files in addition to basic text. Currently MMS usage is very expensive and there is not a single standard in use. Additionally, email provides much higher resolution for images, and mobile email supports other forms of media more readily, therefore Kinesis does not recommend MMS.

QR Codes. QR codes are a further option for pubic venue research where targeted recipients’ mobile phone numbers and email addresses are not available. QR code invitations are inexpensive to implement (the only required cost is signage/display printing) and ensure that surveys are accessed from the mobile device like SMS invitations. Respondents for QR code surveys are limited to those who have an installed QR code reader/scanner app on their mobile device, but QR code knowledge and usage is growing very quickly worldwide, and it will likely be a very viable invitation option moving forward.  QR codes may also be used in conjunction with short codes to appeal to the broadest possible audience and increase response rates.

Location-based.  Utilizing the location-tracking technology that comes standard with most smartphones, survey invitations can be triggered based on the targeted recipients’ physical location. Technologies such as geo-location, geo-fencing, Bluetooth, etc., ensure real-time invitation delivery, and can also confirmation where a survey was completed. There are limitations with this mode however; mobile users have the ability to turn off this feature, location tracking is still sometimes imprecise, and its usage may require compliance with regional privacy laws. Researchers need to be careful not to abuse or alienate respondents with location tracking until the technology becomes more mature, so therefore today it should be used with caution.

In-App Messaging.  Use of smartphone in-app messaging obviously first requires that a custom mobile research app has already been developed and downloaded to the phones of the participants. For research panels where regular communication is necessary and expected, apps are a good option. Beyond the development and maintenance costs, app messaging is typically free and invitations pop up similarly to text messages.

Social Media. Several survey software tools now offer survey invitation integration with leading social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, and this is a good option for multi-mode surveys since these sites are readily accessed by both web and mobile browsers. Social media sites are a good recruitment source for brands and companies with an active and successful social media presence, however survey invitations posted to a Facebook Wall or Twitter Feed may be easily ignored, and therefore response rates may be lower than expected.

Naturally, determining which mobile invitation option(s) to use is dependent upon the type of survey being conducted, the targeted demographic groups, and also the regions in which the project will take place.  Significant research-on-research will be necessary to determine industry-wide mobile survey invitation best practices, but in the meantime, hopefully this blog can shed some light on both the pros and cons of the options available for today’s mobile projects.

AUSTIN, TX (October 26, 2011) - Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for future-proof market research software solutions, today announced that Kinesis Community™ now enables community quick polls to be implemented in multimode to support use from both computer and mobile devices.

Kinesis Community™ is a market research online community (MROC) website solution that operates simultaneously across web-enabled device types. The addition of multimode quick polls is the latest enhancement to the already robust software solution, and enables researchers to insert short research questions with single or multiple choice answers into a community web page that displays appropriately according to the utilized device and browser.

“Throughout the year Kinesis has rapidly rolled out multimode functionality for all of our panel and community solutions,” said Leslie Townsend, Kinesis President.  “Like all websites, panelist MROCs should provide mobile users with an experience that mirrors that of web users as closely as possible.  Quick polls are an integral part of panelist community websites, and now Kinesis Community enables their seamless implementation for all devices. Kinesis is committed to continually expanding our community solution to provide superior interaction for all users.”

Kinesis Community™ is the most intuitive and cost effective online community solution. Researchers can design and implement a custom MROC using Kinesis’ point-and-click functionality in as few as fifteen minutes. Panelists have the ability to access available surveys, review participation history, track rewards, refer friends, manage account settings, and more. The software allows for full mobile device interaction to support the latest generation touch screen smartphones and tablets, and can also be implemented in multiple languages to support global panels.

Kinesis will be among the exhibitors at the ESOMAR 3D conference being held today through Friday at the Trump International Beach Resort in Miami. Attendees are invited to visit Kinesis at Stand #7 to learn more about Kinesis Community™ and Kinesis’ other multimode survey and panel management solutions.

About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a multimode survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both mobile and web-based market research. Delivering intuitive, state-of-the-art applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, USA, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.

Noviodata, headquartered in The Netherlands with addition offices in the US, UK and China, is an experienced online sample company that specializes in providing high-quality panel management and online research services. After determining that its previous software solution could no longer meet its business requirements, and following a detailed competitive evaluation, Noviodata selected the Kinesis market research solution suite earlier this year. The case study details Noviodata’s key selection criteria including cutting-edge survey functionality and comprehensive panel management tools, why Kinesis was ultimately selected, and also the return on investment that Noviodata continues to achieve.

“Kinesis solutions help us to do more work in the same amount of time and provide new school functionality that other vendors do not offer,” says Eelco Markensteyn, Noviodata Panel Manager. “We feel the Kinesis solution suite is uniquely qualified to grow with Noviodata and our diverse research needs.”

Noviodata utilizes Kinesis Survey™ to develop and program dynamic multimode (web/mobile) surveys for a wide variety of research projects, and Kinesis Panel™ to actively manage multiple panels and maximize its sampling capabilities. The company also utilized a Kinesis API to fully integrate Kinesis functionality with its existing panelist website solution. In the case study, Noviodata reports that the Kinesis market research software platform is exceeding its expectations.

“Kinesis provides highly advanced software capabilities that enable our clients to facilitate the widest array of market research projects,” said Leslie Townsend, Kinesis President. “Noviodata is among the most innovative and well respected research companies, and Kinesis is honored to provide software that will enable them to continue their many successes.”

Read the full Noviodata case study.

About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a multimode survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both mobile and web-based market research. Delivering intuitive, state-of-the-art applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, USA, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.

For any research company or brand that is attempting in-house panel management, a full assessment of the required skill sets and communication channels should occur. Does your business have the resources and defined processes in place to ensure value is realized? Here is a high-level summary to consider.

Like all customer-facing business initiatives, research panels require a project manager to provide the general direction, define recruitment and engagement practices, oversee all components of the panel, and drive its success. A technical person with a keen sense of aesthetics/design skills is needed to develop the panelist website, integrate all required functionality, and thoroughly test for usability. Like all websites, a panel website requires continual attention to ensure dynamic content and remain memorable to panelists.  A compliance manager is necessary to ensure that personal and financial data is adequately secured, and that privacy policies and terms of use statements are available and up-to-date. Additional resources may be needed to manage the panelist authentication process, and perform ongoing list management/conversion tasks such as email-to-address matching and de-duplication. Customer support personnel are required to address any panelist support issues in a timely fashion. Recruitment expertise may be necessary if river or social media sample is to be introduced, if customer lists are to be augmented with external sources, or if multiple sources and modes are being managed. If the panel website allows for any discussion forums and/or content upload, a moderator should also be in place to regularly review activity and keep discussions flowing. And naturally, employees with market research know-how are essential to develop the surveys, manage invitation design and delivery (effective invitation design and delivery is an art unto itself, requiring knowledge of spam scoring, email deliverability, and subject line writing), provide incentive fulfillment, and interpret the data to deliver meaningful insights.

Often research companies and brands believe they can save money and maintain better control of the panel if it is managed in-house, and in many cases they are right.  But sometimes companies utilizing in-house management ignore ongoing development and personnel costs, and/or the cost of panel atrophy, which can occur from lack of adequate panel attention.  A panel should be thought of as a core business asset and should be monitored for performance on a regular basis.  While some companies find success, many others fail because they press on with in-house management when they lack the necessary skill sets and resources, and/or because critical cross-department collaboration does not occur.

Research panels provide immeasurable valuable when implemented and fostered correctly. Each organization must evaluate its capabilities with an honest assessment, and for those that lack any of the crucial panel management components, outsourcing can save not only time and money, but ensure panel health as well. An additional route to consider is a hybrid solution in which the research firm or brand maintains responsibility for certain aspects of panel management, while outsourcing others that require more specialized skills and knowledge. Many vendors, including Kinesis, allow for panel management services to be customized, and can even assist in the evaluation process of your internal resource capabilities.

ESOMAR Congress 2011

Whereas a majority of the U.S. industry conferences this year continued to place a heavy emphasis on mobile and social media research implementation, Congress aimed to put these topics into wider context. Assuming the conference sessions are reflective of a broader sentiment in the region, European researchers are less concerned with the effectiveness of the various platforms utilized to facilitate research, and now are more interested in the expanding the methodologies employed to translate data into insight.

Deborah Sleep of Engage Research and Jon Puleston of GMI (whose paper The Game Experiments won the award for best methodological paper) presented data that their “gamified” surveys resulted not only in increased response rates, but also in an increased level of detail for individual question responses. Stephen Phillips and Abigail Hill of Spring Research (who won the award for Best Paper Overall with Research in a World of Irrational Expectations) offered a highly engaging presentation on behavioral economics and stated that too often researchers construct models based on our own expectations of the results, and thus force respondents to answer questions within the constraints that we created. Behavioral economics, they shared, instead starts with the data and then experiments with various models to see which most accurately reflect consumer behavior – resulting in more accurate insights.

Obviously both of these topics are relatively new for the market research industry, and much more education is needed to define what gamification and behavioral economics truly are and are not, as well as how to apply them. But the Congress presentations – and the dialogues that they inspired – clearly illuminate that there are always new methodologies for researchers to discover and utilize in the quest for insight and impact. Let’s see where we head next…

Dialego is a full service market research institute based in Germany. With over a decade of online research expertise, Dialego is committed to providing its clients with the technologies and tools that best support online market research objectives. As such, Dialego recently switched from a major German research software supplier and, following a competitive evaluation of available solutions, selected Kinesis Survey™ as its exclusive survey software.

“Dialego moved to Kinesis Survey because of its state-of-the-art technology and its ability to integrate with our existing infrastructure like our Dialego Research Technology SMAN® with outstanding features of field control and panel management,” said Thomas Watz, Dialego Management Executive of Research Technology and Service. “The deep capabilities and ease of use make Kinesis Survey the right choice at the right time.”

In addition to its use of Kinesis Survey™ for web and mobile research projects, Dialego also utilised the Kinesis API to integrate Kinesis functionality into its existing MROC (market research online community) solution.

“Like Kinesis, Dialego is a company that values innovation and capitalising on new technologies to enhance research practices,” said Tariq Mirza, Kinesis Managing Director of Europe. “We are very pleased to welcome this award-winning market research organisation as a client.”

Dialego recently won the Award for Innovation from BVM (Congress of the German Market Research Industry) for its new research tool BrandSculpture™.  This is the second time Dialego has won the award. For more information about Dialego and BrandSculpture™, please visit www.dialego.com.

About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a multimode survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both mobile and web-based market research. Delivering intuitive, state-of-the-art applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, USA, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.

Another component of MROC success – and one often overlooked – is device compatibility. So often we as researchers look only to fulfill our research objectives, but communities, in order to be successful, must also fulfill the objectives of its members. Today one of the quickest ways to frustrate (and potentially lose) panelists is by not supporting a mobile version of your MROC website. With the extremely faced-paced growth of smartphone and tablet sales, all applications should now be designed to support users regardless of the device that they choose to utilize, and research panels and communities are no different. A Compuware study published in July indicated that consumers are increasingly growing impatient with websites that do not provide a satisfactory mobile experience. Some of the study’s key findings included:

• Mobile users’ expectations for mobile website speed continue to increase. 71% of global mobile web users expect websites to load as quickly, almost as quickly or faster on their mobile phone compared to the computer they use at home — up from 58% in 2009.
• More than 80% of mobile web users would access websites more often from their phone if the experience was as fast and reliable.
• A bad experience on a mobile website leaves mobile web users much less likely to return to, or recommend, a particular website. Nearly half of mobile web users are unlikely to return to a website that they had trouble accessing from their phone, and 57% are unlikely to recommend the site.

Given these consumer expectations, and knowing that researchers are increasingly competing for panelists, does it make any sense to have MROCs that support only certain types of browsers? Unequivocally, no. Furthermore, mobile users seem to be a group of potential panelists that are especially ideal for MROC recruitment. Statistics from some of the largest online communities indicate that a significant percentage of their members already engage with these communities via mobile devices. Consider that one third of Facebook’s 750 million users regularly access the application from their mobile phone, and 43% of Twitter users do. This means that a large segment of individuals who participate in online communities desire to do so using a mobile device.

Researchers who plan to launch a new MROC, and also those whose existing MROC is currently limited to computer browser interaction, need to immediately take steps to ensure mobile device compatibility. Failure to do so seriously undermines the potential of the MROC, and ultimately the quality of your research.

This whitepaper provides up-to-date best practices concerning mobile survey design and delivery, outlines the functional capabilities of various mobile devices, and offers suggestions about the implementation of mobile research methodologies.  Also addressed are relevant implications for panel management and the added versatility provided by multimode (web/mobile) research delivery.

“Mobile survey best practices of today are already significantly different from the best practices of just a couple years ago,” said Leslie Townsend, Kinesis President. “With the rapid expansion of mobile technology, and the introduction new devices such as the iPad, the market research industry must continue to evolve its mobile strategies. Since there are still very few resources available on this vital subject, Kinesis published this whitepaper to provide researchers with a robust picture as to what successful mobile research entails.”

The best practices outlined in this whitepaper were compiled based upon Kinesis’ eight years of experience as the leading provider of mobile research software solutions. Having hosted all varieties of mobile research projects and successfully processed millions of mobile surveys to date, Kinesis leveraged its expertise and outlined several major factors that must be considered when implementing mobile survey research.

The Evolving Best Practices in Mobile Surveys and Online Administration whitepaper is available for free download on the Kinesis website at: http://www.kinesissurvey.com/resources/whitepapers.

About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a multimode survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both mobile and web-based market research. Delivering intuitive, state-of-the-art applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX USA, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.

Located in California and Costa Rica, Harmon Research Group specializes in telephone and internet data collection projects conducted in the U.S., Latin Americas and the Caribbean. Following a competitive analysis of available solutions, Kinesis Survey™ was selected by Harmon Research Group because of its flexible multilingual capabilities and its extensive multimode survey programming functionality.

“We needed a solution that enabled surveys to be delivered in dual-mode to both mobile and desktop devices, and in multiple languages to support our diverse respondent groups,” said Joey Harmon, Harmon Research Group President/CEO. “We selected Kinesis Survey because it more than meets these needs, and it is able to handle complex research projects while being very easy to use. In addition, our clients love having personalized data and reporting tools available to them 24/7 via a secure Kinesis server.”

“Harmon Research Group has extensive research experience and is among the industry leaders in multimode data collection services,” said Kinesis Director of North American Sales, Gene Filipi. “Kinesis is very pleased to be Harmon Research’s survey software partner.”

More information about Harmon Research Group is available at: http://www.harmonresearch.com.

About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a multimode survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both mobile and web-based market research. Delivering intuitive, state-of-the-art applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX USA, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.