Consumers are increasingly utilizing mobile devices in addition to (or instead of) desktops for their online activities, and therefore it is the market research industry’s responsibility to comprehensively understand how online research projects and methodologies must adapt.  A highly insightful presentation on this topic, “Mobile Redefines Media, Research” was recently given by Kinesis partners’ Illuminas and Federated Sample at the ARF Re:think 2013 conference. Utilizing the Kinesis Survey platform, in conjunction with their own research assets and those of MyPoints, the Illuminas/Federated Sample team studied the escalating impact of mobile technology on media consumption and as a market research tool.

The team sought to identify insights about several challenging questions facing today’s advertising researchers.  One goal was to readily identify which respondents represent the mobile audience vs. the desktop audience. Their results largely confirm what Kinesis has also found in our independent research: that smartphone respondents skew slightly younger whereas tablet and desktop respondents skew slightly older; and that for all device groups (desktop, tablet and smartphone), the device type that was used to participate in this study was reported as the “favorite” online device by the majority in each group. This is a clear indication that market researchers must enable successful survey project interaction for all major online device types, in order to support the preferences of the widest range of respondents (and therefore the most representative groups of consumers). Illuminas/Federated Sample recommended, as Kinesis has long championed, that researchers utilize a multi-mode research software platform with device detection functionality to enable surveys to display appropriately for each device group.

This is increasingly important as mobile survey taking continues to climb. According to Federated Sample data, as of January 13% of market research surveys are now being conducted on mobile devices, which represents significant growth over their figure of 6% last year. Kinesis sees substantially higher mobile rates on our platform (over 30% as of 3Q 2012), which is likely attributable to the fact that Kinesis offers the industry’s most comprehensive mobile research functionality, but Federated Sample’s data serves as confirmation that mobile device usage among all market research participants continues to swiftly rise.

The Illuminas/Federated Sample project also sought to compare incidental mobile survey participants with intentional mobile survey participants, meaning that they allowed device preference to occur naturally for the first group and specifically targeted smartphone and tablet users in the latter group.  Intentional mobile users were found to use a greater variety of devices more frequently, consider themselves more “tech savvy,” and participate in social media more often than their incidental counterparts.  These findings have broad implications across the market research landscape – for how respondents should be authenticated, how panels and sampling exchanges are managed, how qualitative exercises are conducted, how behavioral modeling should adapt, and for market research methods in general.  Interestingly however, both groups reported fairly similar views about being exposed to advertising messages, purchasing behavior as related to ad exposure, and the desire to interact with brands via social media.

Much of the insight shared during the session confirmed Kinesis’ long held recommendations about mobile optimization for survey design, such as keeping overall survey length down and restricting answer grids to a reasonable number of options (four) to avoid problematic scaling and scrolling issues. One somewhat surprising insight had to do with the use of open-ended survey questions. Kinesis has routinely recommended sparing usage of open ends in mobile and multi-mode surveys, because typing on a smartphone screen is often more difficult than on a desktop keyboard, and could possibly affect the responses. However, the Illuminas/Federated Sample research showed very little difference in the number of characters a respondent typed, regardless of the device type and also whether they were an incidental vs. intentional mobile user. While the average desktop respondent typed 33 characters, the average intentional smartphone user typed 32 characters and the incidental smartphone user typed 31 as an open-ended response.

The Illuminas/Federated Sample study offered the ARF conference audience new data and insights that have not been provided before, and more studies of this nature would surely benefit the industry and its end clients. As mobile technology usage escalates, and more individuals consume brand information and advertising via handheld devices, market and advertising researchers must understand the behaviors, preferences, and demographics of these respondents and develop research projects accordingly.

As mobile market research continues to expand, there are increasingly more options available for communicating with online research participants: email, SMS, in-app messaging, location-triggers, QR codes, social media, and others. The selection of which method(s) to utilize is of course dependent on the type of studies being conducted, and the target audiences required.  While email still reigns as the most versatile and widely-accepted method, SMS (text messaging) has some clear advantages for multimode and mobile-only projects. First, it is most pervasive – more than 95 percent of mobile phones (“smart” and not) are text enabled. Second, it is highly immediate – on average it takes only 90 seconds to respond to a text message, versus 90 minutes to respond to an email.

SMS is widely used and it can sustain high engagement (particularly among teens and young adults), but it does have some disadvantages. Most notably is cost; today per-usage fees are often required which can make implementation undesirable for more limited research budgets. However, SMS costs continue to decrease and more mobile providers are offering unlimited text plans, so this issue may resolve itself in the near future.  As SMS becomes a more popular mobile communication method for market research, it is important to use good manners when sending out texts. Below are some best practices that Kinesis recommends:

Get permission first: receiving an unsolicited text message may annoy (or worse, anger) some recipients, therefore obtaining a separate opt-in that is specific to SMS is necessary. You may have previously collected the mobile phone number as part of a registration or profiler process, but until you have expressly obtained permission to text, do not utilize SMS.  The financial/punitive repercussions of sending unsolicited SMS communications are more severe than with email.

State the purpose: Inform participants upfront as to how text messaging will be used (to send survey invites, reminders, rewards notifications, etc.), and stick to it. If you decide to extend your SMS communications in the future, obtain permission yet again to encompass the expanded intentions.

Be clear: SMS is by nature an abbreviated form of communication, but it is important that your intended meaning still comes across correctly. While concise messaging is desirable, do not assume that all recipients will understand an abbreviation or slang term. For survey invitations, use of abbreviations and slang can introduce significant non-response bias.

Be time-specific: Capture each recipient’s time zone and only send texts during (their) daytime hours. In multi-region studies, communications should never be sent out all at once because what is late afternoon for one recipient could be the middle of the night for another. Think about how many people sleep with their phone beside the bed, and be respectful. Going a step further, consider allowing each participant to set their own desired time parameters as to when they are willing to receiving texts.

Offer a way out: Be sure to provide a way to opt-out of text messaging. Some participants who initially agree to receiving texts may change their minds, and they should be able to terminate SMS communications quickly and easily. Providing an unsubscribe link or simple text term such as “quit” is usually adequate, and in many countries this is legally required.

Use sparingly: Remember that SMS is inherently the most intrusive communication mechanism available to researchers, so it should not be over-utilized. Whereas other communication options such as email and social media are more passive, text messages actively pop up on the device screen, often accompanied by an audio cue, in real-time. Even for participants who prefer SMS over other methods, too many texts may cause them to opt-out when they were otherwise willing to participate.

Usage of SMS in market research will continue to grow steadily along with the other communication options made available via mobile devices. When executed properly, text messaging can strengthen engagement with your research participants and produce high response rates. For more mobile market research best practices, check out the Kinesis whitepapers.

See Kinesis President Leslie Townsend interviewed about the utilization of SoLoMo in market research for the Research Business Daily Report:

The intersection of mobile and geolocation technologies offers tremendous potential for the market research industry. The ability to deliver survey invitations based on the targeted respondents’ physical location, and then obtain their feedback in the moment, will provide a level of data accuracy never before possible. It means less reliance on recall and more real-time opinion collection. It will enable the ability to track shopper patterns throughout the retail space, and offer location-based coupons as incentives for on-the-spot survey participation. It will also provide access to new metadata fields that contain a wealth of additional information.

Yet for today, geolocation is still not ready for wide scale use in market research. This is because although the technology can accurately identify a general area or street location, it is typically not accurate enough to trigger an invitation at a precise store shelf or display. Additionally, the wide variety of mobile device types do not track location information in a uniform manner, which can make aggregation of location data somewhat challenging. But with the pace at which location-based technologies are advancing, these limitations will most certainly dissipate in the near future. And the market research industry should not sit idle while we are waiting for this advancement; there are other issues related to location-based research that should be addressed now.

Usage of geolocation technology has implications regarding respondent privacy and the legality of capturing/using this information. The industry has not yet fully evaluated the increasingly complex methods in which this data can (and should) be utilized. All mobile device users with their geolocation feature turned on have the potential to be tracked, and they may not have a clear understanding as to the numerous ways in which this information can be used and shared – even after having opted-in to a location-based research study. Smartphone photos, for example, not only have a timestamp but may also have a location stamp as well. When sending in photos as part of a digital ethnography, respondents are providing additional metadata that they may not be aware of. Beyond that, there is the potential to track a smartphone’s movement over time and outside of the research study’s parameters, which may be a level of intrusion that is unacceptable to many respondents.

The market research industry needs to develop some usage and security regulations, and fast. Already advertisers are seizing the geolocation opportunity; recently Facebook announced that it will begin serving up location-based mobile advertising in real-time. And we all know that where advertising goes, market research follows. Yet researchers may be conducting location-based projects without knowing precisely what data is being collected or how to protect it.

Kinesis has been evaluating and using geolocation technologies since 2007, and today we offer mobile browser-based location capture as part of our survey solution. While the market research industry works to address these unresolved issues, Kinesis recommends that any research company planning to include geolocation in its projects inform respondents up front that location capture technology is being employed, and explicitly state how the data will be utilized following their consent. Usage of both an initial notification, and a geolocation specific opt-in, is highly beneficial. Additionally, location should more than likely become an encrypted database field with routine purging for security.

Kinesis will continue to report on the advancements of location-based technologies for market research. If you have any specific questions, please don’t hesitate to Contact Us.

Obviously, from our most recent blogs, the CASRO Tech conference provided a wealth of new data on mobile survey traffic. Survey participation from mobile devices is now growing at what many deem an “alarming” rate, and the information that was revealed throughout the conference was very compelling.

At a session co-presented by Federated Sample and Maritz Research, they revealed findings from an analysis of 60 million survey starts (which should be an adequate number to assure the industry that a sufficiently large sample has been examined).  While 18 million of the completes represent a single company’s traffic (that of Maritz), the remaining 42 million were of mixed origin (surveys included in Federated’s router, but all primarily coming from panel traffic).  In this sample 60% of the survey traffic originated from within the U.S. and the remaining 40% was outside the U.S. Now for the interesting tidbits: 12.5% of the total traffic came from mobile devices, and at the current rate of growth of mobile traffic origination, 20% of survey traffic will originate from mobile devices by Q2 2013, according to the presenters.

What does this mean for the market research industry?  It means that we should already be well beyond the point of planning for dual-mode surveys and actually be implementing them. A comment after the session from Steve Gittelman of Mktg. Inc. (when asked how mobile survey-takers will fit into the industry’s behavioral models) was that mobile survey takers should be defined as behaviorally different — meaning that there is an inherent survey bias to all surveys that exclude them.  If one in five surveys will soon be taken on mobile devices, that is going to be a very, very significant bias.

The Federated/Maritz team concurred, and made some noteworthy observations in support of the argument that our industry’s survey methodologies are now “broken” as a result of mobile traffic:

• Redirects through traditional pixel fires and URLs will break down more with mobile devices
• Organic Flash penetration will diminish to 85% of devices by Q1 2013 — meaning we need to use alternatives to Flash-based question types
• Email open rates are also diminishing due to the rise in social media
• Respondent authentication processes — digital fingerprinting, deduplification, IP address authentication, and measurement of “engagement” — are also now broken (it is not clear how the industry will be able to identify mobile respondents across sessions for authentication)

During the CASRO session, Federated stopped short of indicating that it plans to support mobile respondents within its router, but the implication is clear — the need is there and they plan to “be ready” by 2013. Market research companies need to be ready for mobile respondents as well. Not in 2013, but right now.

Kudos to Gregg Peterson of Market Strategies International for his presentation at the CASRO Technology Conference on unintentional mobile respondents.  This term refers to the respondents who are “creeping” into web surveys using smartphones and tablets, when we as an industry do not intend for them to use these devices for survey participation.

Market Strategies examined data across multiple surveys, all non-complex in nature, to determine what is happening to the unintentional mobile respondents (UMRs).  Market Strategies provided some of the best research to date on UMR behavior inside this study itself. Most notably:

• UMRs take 25-50% longer than desktop respondents to complete surveys
• UMRs drop out at a rate that is approximately twice that of desktop respondents
• This dropout rate increases survey bias, as UMRs disproportionately fall into some “hard-to-fill” quota segments in terms of age and ethnicity
• UMRs click on survey invitation links faster than those who use desktop devices (i.e. they respond faster)
• UMRs provide just as many answers on long checkbox questions as desktop respondents, and they are also just as likely to offer opened ended responses — but generally with fewer characters
• There was no clear evidence of satisficing on mobile devices

Market Strategies also conducted a study among 71,000 survey respondents with the purpose of determining what impact the recommendation to use a desktop device has on UMRs. While detecting for device, some mobile respondents were encouraged to switch to a desktop device in order to have a better survey experience, while others were not (Market Strategies used a mildly worded warning message).  The study found that the message had no impact on survey starts, and during the presentation Peterson concluded that there is no real value in giving such warnings to mobile respondents when surveys are not programmed / prepared to support mobile interaction.  Kinesis has been suggesting this type of warning message as one alternative for companies that do not want to make their surveys mobile-friendly — but in the face of this evidence we now conclude that the better options are to terminate mobile respondents upon detection (as an example, when Flash is used in a survey), or make the survey mobile-friendly in the first place.

Market Strategies’ findings aligned with the popular consensus at CASRO Tech: as practitioners, we must “honor the choice” made by our survey respondents and panelists regarding device type, and fully embrace mobile-friendly survey designs to support this growing segment of research participants.

Those who have been reading this blog with any regularity know that we at Kinesis have been arguing, for nearly a decade now, that the market research industry must shift its online survey processes to support mobile respondents. Surveys must enable respondents to participate from any common web device of their choosing – be it a desktop computer, a tablet, or a mobile phone. In recent years many others within the industry have joined us as proponents of mobile and multimode survey implementation, so the collective voice has been growing louder. Unfortunately, it appears that many researchers are still not listening.

Today at the annual CASRO Technology Conference Tim Macer of meaning limited and Pat Molloy of Confirmit shared results from the latest edition of their annual market research technology survey of MR professionals in a session entitled “State of Technology in Market Research.” They indicated that the results for mobile survey traffic rates were reported to be approximately 5-10% of total online survey traffic, depending on company and geographic location. They also indicated that more than 60% of the respondents reported that their companies are taking no action or have no formal policy to address mobile survey participation. Yikes.

If mobile survey traffic rates of 5-10% does not alert market researchers that non-support of mobile respondents is now a serious problem, perhaps our percentage will: for Q1 2012 more than 25% of Kinesis’ overall U.S. survey traffic came from mobile devices (although it must be noted that the percentages were substantially lower in other parts of the world). This figure represents a rapid and significant increase of mobile device usage on the Kinesis survey platform, and amplifies the necessity of mobile device support. Granted, some may argue that Kinesis’ figure is not as representative of the overall industry as perhaps the figures reported above, since Kinesis was early to market with a mobile solution and may have a more “mobile-centric” customer base than the industry at large.  Still, no matter how you interpret these rates, industry-wide mobile traffic is only going one direction: up.

So for the 60+% of research companies that are not actively addressing mobile device support – what should be done? First, they should acknowledge that it is the responsibility of EVERY market research company to pave the way for their own survey respondents.  Every company involved in DIY has the same responsibility. Listed below are multiple courses of action that each company can take, and these are not mutually exclusive:

1. Detect for device/browser being used, and make sure that survey programming supports all (or the majority of) devices on the market.
2. Detect for device/browser being used, and terminate those that cannot be supported with a brief apology/ explanation.  Let respondents know when the survey is long, utilizes Flash, etc., and that it will not render well on mobile devices.  Give them the opportunity to pick back up again on a desktop device (or tablet if no Flash is used).
3. In fact, let’s stop using Flash altogether whenever possible.
4. Develop methodologies that shorten the survey experience for mobile respondents.  Show mobile respondents fewer and only the most salient questions in a survey.
5. Panels need to be made ready for mobile as well.  Incentive redemption, community engagement, and all panel-related activities need to be mobile-enabled if the panel is to stay current and relevant.

These steps are not only desirable, they are critical to the survival of the industry. We at Kinesis have no doubt that the percentages of mobile survey traffic for every market research company will only continue to increase…and increase rapidly. And it is our hope that next year’s research-on-research findings indicate a majority of MR companies are actively mobilizing their mobile strategy.

Last summer Kinesis offered up our Top 10 Predictions as to how mobile technology will significantly transform market research over the next few years. Included on the list was a prediction that “apps will be a mostly transitional phenomena in the industry.”

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.

When Apple first announced the iPad two years ago this month, it was received with very mixed reviews among the technology gurus and press. While some immediately saw its value, many others predicted that it would fail. Leading tech reporters deemed the iPad “disappointing,” and its utility as “awfully thin.” Fast forward to now, and obviously the skeptics have been silenced. The iPad has spawned a whole new generation of tablet computing and it – along with its relatives such as the Kindle Fire, HP Touchpad and Samsung Galaxy Tab – became the fastest growing consumer electronics products of 2011.

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.

To date, sampling costs for mobile respondents have been higher than those for traditional web respondents. This reality has left many market researchers hesitant to recommend mobile (or mixed-mode) survey projects to their clients. It is true that mobile research methods can be more expensive during initial implementations, but this is primarily because mobile is still a relatively new platform for most researchers, and start-up costs are always associated with the introduction of new technologies and methodologies. Yet, as mobile usage continues to escalate (tablets are included in the mobile category too since functionality such as touchscreen support and image scaling is required to support these devices), the market research industry will have to adopt a mixed-mode approach that supports respondents on all of their commonly-utilized web devices.

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.

Earlier this month Adobe – creator of Flash technology – announced that it will no longer develop out Flash for smartphone and tablet devices and will only continue providing security updates and patches. When it comes to mobile support, Adobe is instead getting on the HTML5 bandwagon with Apple, Google, Microsoft, and RIM. Regardless of the fact that Flash has never been supported in Apple iOS’s Safari (a large portion of the US and global smartphone market), the technology has never been truly optimized and scaled for any mobile platforms.

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.

 
There are many resources available, including several from Kinesis, that detail best practices for mobile surveys. Harder to find are best practice recommendations specific to mobile survey invitations; while there are actually numerous invitation options to consider, little information is available to the MR industry as to which are most effective for any given mobile research project. This is primarily because a majority of today’s mobile survey traffic comes from respondent intercept on mobile websites and ads, rather than from mobile panels. Things are starting to change however – Kinesis is seeing significant growth of mobile and multimode panels among our clients and throughout the industry – and therefore effective mobile invitation delivery is becoming a critical issue. The challenge is that there are many mobile invitation modes to consider, and determining which mode(s) to utilize can be tricky.  Below Kinesis has briefly identified both the well-known and emerging mobile survey invitation options available to researchers, with some recommendations for use.

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.

Earlier this year Kinesis unveiled QR code support for Kinesis Survey™ so that clients could automatically generate a QR code for any mobile or multimode survey. Just last month we introduced the most advanced MROC portal, Kinesis Community™, which also can utilize QR codes as a means to drive recruitment of new panelists. While QR code implementation is not yet a widespread practice among our clients, nor among the greater market research industry, Kinesis is certainly ready when they are. Considering some recently released QR code usage statistics, it looks as if consumers – particularly those in younger demographics – are ready as well. Last week Comscore reported that 14 million Americans scanned a QR code using their mobile phones in June (representing 6.2 percent of the total mobile audience and 53.4 percent of users ages 18-34). In July, Mobio indicated that QR code scanning grew 9,840 percent in North America in Q2 2011 on a year-over-year basis.

What does this mean for market research? It means that there is a significant opportunity for the industry to get ahead of this mobile technology’s rapid adoption and capitalize on the benefits it affords our projects and clients. It means there is a less expensive and just-as-easy-to-use alternative to SMS short codes for general intercept research.  While short codes are currently the most commonly utilized method for recruiting respondents to provide feedback at retail stores, restaurants and other consumer-targeted locations, they are an expensive invitation delivery option. The client must incur a fee every time a potential respondent submits the short code – or worse – the respondent is charged for initiating the text. Here is the big “in” for QR codes – free for both parties!

QR codes can be displayed on promotional media just like SMS short codes, yet there is virtually no cost associated with their use.  While photographing a QR code first requires that a QR code reader application (app) is installed on the mobile device, several free and nominal cost apps are available for download on a variety of mobile devices. Additionally, as QR code usage continues to grow and becomes commonplace among mobile users, it is highly likely that smartphone OS providers will begin including QR code functionality as part of the standard mobile operating system, and thus eliminate the need for users to search for and download an app on their own.

For now, Kinesis recommends that all researchers who utilize short codes as an invitation delivery method also provide a QR code option. Using both in tandem provides potential respondents with greater flexibility and offers a choice that is free of charge. In the future, as QR code knowledge and usage continues to grow among consumers, QR codes will very likely supplant SMS short codes, unless the fee structure of SMS usage is radically changed.

The market research industry has an opportunity to lead mobile marketers to greater QR code adoption and assist them to reduce the research costs for many general intercept projects. Won’t you join us?

The Kinesis team is just back from exhibiting at the ARF Re:think 2011 Convention in New York. What was HOT for Kinesis at ARF?  QR codes.

Kinesis recently unveiled built-in support for QR code generation that enables respondents to take a picture of a displayed QR code with their camera phone and immediately trigger a mobile survey. The QR codes posted on the Kinesis booth signage drew a lot of attention from among the ARF attendees, and rightfully so.

QR codes are gaining in popularity for all aspects of advertising and marketing.  Retail stores and restaurants can recruit for feedback and offer promotions in real-time as their establishments are being patronized. Magazine and signage advertising can easily provide readers with access to additional product information. Business cards can be used to direct prospects to the company website.

For market research, QR codes are easy to implement and solve many invitation issues for mobile surveys. Often companies desire to capture experience feedback in the moment, but cannot find an easy way to get the survey invitations out to respondents.  If a researcher wants to capture responses from commuter train passengers while they are riding the train, as an example, how does he or she deliver the invitations in real-time?  There is no way to know the phone numbers of those riding the train at any particular time, but there are some invitation delivery options:

• Post a short code for SMS reply that returns a survey link.  Implementing this option may take up to six weeks to obtain the short code, and entails usage-based costs for each use of that code.
• Develop a custom mobile app.  This option could include a survey component, and also offer value-add in the form of an easy way to update schedules, etc., however the app’s availability must still be communicated to passengers and they would have to download the app before using it. Plus it requires significant development time and cost.
• Post a QR code that, when scanned, immediately directs respondents to the survey invitation.  This option can be implemented very quickly simply by generating a code (using one of many free online tools) and posting it on signage inside the train.  To scan the QR code, respondents must first install a free QR code reader app on their phone, but simple instructions for doing this could be included on the signage as well.

QR codes accomplish the same goals as short codes – but eliminate the expense – and they are quickly gaining in popularity.  A recent MGH study found that 32 percent of surveyed smartphone users indicated that they have used a QR code before, and 70 percent said that they plan to use a QR code again or for the first time. Clearly QR codes have the potential to vastly increase the reach of mobile market research. Good thing Kinesis is ready – today.

The market research industry is currently facing some big challenges. New technologies such as mobile and social media are being rapidly adopted by research participants, and therefore dramatic changes to our processes and methodologies are required. At the same time, research budgets and project timelines are shrinking, making it difficult to quickly and effectively implement the necessary changes. With mobile and social media development moving faster and faster, and other new and valuable research technologies emerging (such as on-site barcode scanning and media capture, gaming and geolocation), it is clear that the fast-paced trend will not reverse any time soon. Those who are struggling to keep up now will undoubtedly fall further and further behind in the coming years unless fundamental strategy changes are implemented.

So, the million dollar question is this: how do you protect your investments in skill sets, software, training, etc., while simultaneously migrating your business to support these new and critical technologies?

Thankfully the million dollar question does have an answer, and the answer is a relatively straightforward one: become future-proof. Wikipedia defines future-proof as: anticipating future developments, so that action can be taken to minimize possible negative consequences, and to seize opportunities. Dictionary.com defines it this way: (of a system, computer, program, etc.) guaranteed not to be superseded by future versions, developments, etc. To become future-proof, a shift in mindset is required. It means considering not only how emerging technologies are being applied to research today, but also how they could and should be applied tomorrow.

To successfully future-proof your business, new investments must be made now – even though we are facing a weak economy. Education and training are needed to understand how these new technologies will affect research processes during the next several years. Survey design, panel management, sampling practices, participant authentication tools, etc. are evolving as a result of mobile and social media usage, and all researchers need to fully understand the implications. In the face of the growing DIY research movement, education will be the card to play that keeps MR companies thriving. Researchers need to be anticipating where the participants will go next, how to reach them there, and what tools will be needed to keep them engaged. Enterprise businesses will have no choice but to return to the experts for truly effective market research analysis and results.

New investments in software may be needed as well. Some solution providers are stagnated in the wake of mobile web growth (while already lagging behind in web solutions), and are now attempting to play catch up with their solution offerings. As a result, many MR companies are now faced with needing to change, or at least augment, their research platforms in order to keep pace with the industry’s evolution. For companies in this position, a careful ROI evaluation is needed for each solution being considered, particularly in terms of longevity and flexibility. Consider how well your software investment will be protected as expanding technology continues to evolve market research, and whether or not the solution vendor will be capable of providing ongoing future-proof solutions.

The answer to the million dollar market research question is straightforward, but that does not mean its implementation will be easy. Collectively we must recognize and embrace the changes being thrust upon our industry, and be willing to do the hard work necessary to achieve success.  Now is the time to take on a future-proof mindset and answer the question for yourself.

For the MR industry, the time to capitalize on mobile research is now. According to an eMarketer report, U.S. mobile Internet usage is projected to increase to more than 101.1 million users (32.3% of the population) in 2011, and similar growth is occurring around the world. This group represents a huge and largely untapped respondent pool – and unlike PC-user respondents, they have the ability to provide feedback from virtually anywhere.

Yet even with all of the industry buzz this year, mobile is still a new and unchartered survey platform for most researchers. The challenge for newcomers lies in designing a mobile survey that both meets its research objectives and provides a satisfactory user experience for respondents. Effective mobile survey design requires much more than simply replicating an online survey in mobile format. Certain aspects of the survey design are contingent upon the kinds of mobile phones being utilized by respondents (smartphones vs. feature phones), and other design aspects are the same regardless of mobile device type. Let’s start with a few best practices that should be utilized for every mobile survey.

First, all mobile phone screens offer limited display real estate when compared to PC screens, so in the world of mobile surveys, less is always more. Use minimal branding so that the majority of the viewable area can be devoted to question content (it may be necessary to restrict branding to only the first and last survey pages for feature phones). Then, ensure that questions and response options are written as concisely as possible to optimize the limited display and reduce the need for scrolling or breaking answer lists onto an additional page. The total number of questions contained in the survey must also be limited; mobile devices are intended to be utilized on-the-go, so lengthy surveys that take more than a few minutes to complete are not ideal. Finally, there are some commonly-used online survey elements that are not supported by a majority of mobile phones, and should therefore be avoided. Table structures, Javascript, and even Other: specify questions can be tricky to implement in the mobile world.

Another consideration for all mobile surveys is the invitation delivery method: SMS (text) or email. While text invitations are likely to grab the recipients’ attention faster than email, SMS laws and costs vary greatly by region and must be defined for each mobile project. SMS rates can quickly get expensive for the client – or worse, the target recipients – therefore text expenses must be planned for in advance. Typically email invitations are best if the application permits their use. WAP push is possible in regions such as Europe where a common wireless network standard (GSM) is used.

Shifting gears, there are additional best practices that are determined by mobile device type. Researchers must determine whether their sample will be limited to users of smartphones (with higher functionality) or feature phones (with more limited functionality) or include a mix of both. This decision has several implications. For instance, smartphones offer network speeds that feature phones simply cannot match. Network speed affects how quickly each survey page (and embedded image) loads, and slow load times undoubtedly affect dropout rates. Older mobile devices also have limited color configurations that could result in a distorted visual appearance of the survey and its included elements, and some cannot support images at all. On the other hand, the image capabilities of the latest smartphones rival that of PCs, TVs and digital cameras, and most auto-scale images to fit the screen size. Full-motion video can even be utilized if the sample is limited to smartphones, however its implementation can be challenging because different devices utilize different display formats. Smartphone surveys can also include the use of embedded links (to provide additional product, support, privacy policy, etc. information), whereas most feature phones cannot.

Data entry is another a primary consideration based on device type. Smartphones enable relative ease for data entry because of their full alphanumeric key options, while feature phones have traditional phone-style keypads that make text inputs slower and more prone to typing errors. Touchscreen smartphones have a distinct issue as well – ample space must be provided between response selections so that respondents do not accidentally click the “wrong” response, and thereby invalidate the survey results. This risk can be mitigated by utilizing a mobile survey solution that includes advanced touchscreen support to optimize visibility and interaction.

This list provides a summary of the key mobile survey design considerations, but of course there are others, and every research project has its unique variables. And while much of this blog outlines the limitations of feature phones vs. smartphones, it is imperative to note that feature phones are still very effective in mobile research provided the surveys are optimized for their capabilities. For researchers who are just entering the mobile arena, hands down the number one best practice is to work with a mobile survey solution provider that possesses the software functionality and delivery experience necessary to ensure your project’s success.

Stay tuned for the next Kinesis blog post…it will identify the essential best practices for implementing and managing a mobile panel.