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.

Increasingly research projects are conducted across geographic regions, thereby requiring that surveys be available to respondents in multiple languages. Often researchers attempt to program multilingual surveys by cutting and pasting from one or more word processing documents, and the results of this method can sometimes be painful. Translated versions may not contain all of the text that potentially could be seen by respondents (such as system and validation error messages, invitations and landing pages), and there is also risk of accidentally omitting a portion of text during copy/paste operations. These types of mistakes can easily go undetected by a programmer who is not fluent in each language, and cause considerable harm to the survey project. This method is also tedious to perform.

The Kinesis Survey™ Language Manager was designed to help prevent these common pitfalls. It enables programmers to provide all survey text to a translation firm in the original language using an XML file. This XML file not only includes the question and answer texts, but also all system error messages, table texts, invitation texts, validation error messages, etc. – along with relevant system tags that indicate where to insert text when uploading a translated version of the file back into the Language Manager. Additionally, since Kinesis Survey™ enables surveys to be launched in multimode, the Language Manager allows for further customization of text, invitation and error message translations that are specific to the device type (computer or mobile) utilized by the respondent.  As a final step, programmers can review translated material by comparing the survey in any two languages, side-by-side, and printed on a single page, with the Language Manager’s comparison tool. This type of quality assurance further reduces the risk of errors during the translation process.

Through the Kinesis Survey™ Language Manager, each separate language version uploaded via a translated XML file is given a locale ID. This locale ID can be appended to the incoming survey URL to route respondents into the survey with a predetermined language. Alternatively, the locale parameter and ID can be left off of the survey URL, thereby enabling respondents to select their preferred language on the first screen of the survey. Either way, the locale ID can then be used within conditional logic (if desired) to only display certain questions/options based on the language selection of each respondent.

Ultimately, the Kinesis Survey™ Language Manager allows researchers to keep a multilingual survey within a single program while greatly reducing the potential of translation errors. It also facilitates device-specific translations to support multimode surveys that enable respondents to not only participate in their preferred language, but also utilizing their preferred device. These capabilities speed up programming time and also allow for easier analysis of data across all countries, languages and devices.

The March issue of Research Magazine includes a detailed review of Kinesis Survey™ by Tim Macer. We certainly like what he had to say. Some highlights:

• “Offers a feature set as advanced as any of the established major players”
• “…Kinesis has already enticed an impressive list of high-profile research companies in the USA away from more established web survey software providers.”
• “’Ease of use’ has long become a cliche of software marketing. Yet this software is a lesson in what the term should mean.”
• “High-end platform for web, mobile or mixed-mode online self-completion surveys with integrated real-time reporting and publishing.”

Pick up a copy of Research Magazine to read the full review.

Last October we published a blog post that called for A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action Please concerning the most pressing issues in market research for 2011. This was an informal appeal to the industry to move away from conceptual and theory-based presentations and papers about why market research practices must evolve, and instead start offering tangible recommendations about how to survive the evolution. After having attended CASRO’s annual Online Research Conference in Las Vegas last week, Kinesis is encouraged that the industry is now also subscribing to this mantra. Session presenters took on several of the hot-button topics that are changing the face of market research, and they offered true insight based on studies and analyses conducted by their companies.

Sean Conry of Techneos Systems and Patricia Graham of Knowledge Networks presented a case study about the principle considerations of implementing mobile research, and provided detailed results of their case study project and its business implications. The NPD Group’s Inna Burdein looked at how panelist reporting habits change as they become tenured, and how research results are affected. Melanie Courtwright and Chuck Miller from DMS Insights compared four of the most commonly used respondent validation programs to understand the validation metrics used by each and the resulting validation rates provided. These, and many other sessions, were truly insightful and had a lot of “action” included within their conversation.

Interestingly, the session topics that CASRO elected to feature at the conference mirror many of the topics addressed here on the Kinesis blog in recent months. We see this as further validation of the direction we are moving with our solution offerings. In the last year Kinesis has introduced new mobile research apps, expanded our multimode survey functionality, incorporated new technologies such respondent validation, and greatly expanded the capabilities of our panel management software. Kinesis is on pulse with the direction the MR industry is heading, and we will continue to add our own action-filled conversations to the mix. Next up: Tariq Mirza, Kinesis’ Managing Director of Europe, will present “Bridging the Mobile Gap: The Journey from Why to How in Mobile Research” at the Swedish Market Research Day on March 17. Also, look for Kinesis President Leslie Townsend to be among the session presenters at the Marketing Research Association’s Annual Conference in June (details to follow).

Tariq Mirza Appointed as Managing Director of European Operations

AUSTIN, TX (January 10, 2011) - Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for future-proof market research software solutions, today announced the opening of a European office based in London.

The new office serves market research firms and enterprise businesses located throughout Europe. This additional location enables Kinesis to better support its European-based clients, as well as engage new prospective customers in the region. The office is led by market research industry veteran Tariq Mirza, Managing Director, Europe. Mirza was formerly employed by Intellex Dynamic Reporting, and has more than seventeen years of experience in market research software sales and development with Quantime, Voxco and Nebu.

“Kinesis is increasingly focused upon servicing companies with global operations that require regional expertise,” said Kinesis President Leslie Townsend. “The addition of a London office will facilitate Kinesis’ expansion in the region, and Tariq Mirza is highly qualified to lead these efforts. We are very pleased to have him join our team.”

“Kinesis is a company that is perfectly positioned for the future of market research,” Mirza said. “It is clearly ahead of the game by offering a multimode web/mobile research platform linked to communities – as this is precisely where our industry is headed. I am extremely excited to join Kinesis and help secure a leading position both in Europe and globally.”

Interested parties can reach the Kinesis London office at +44 20 7956 2119, or by emailing Mirza at tariq.mirza@kinesissurvey.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, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.

Here comes another new year, so inevitably it is time to make those New Year’s resolutions. Many of us will make personal resolutions – probably to get healthier or to spend more quality time with loved ones. But what about professional resolutions? The market research industry is undergoing a full-fledged revolution, and now is the time to plot out your business strategies in response.

Kinesis offers up the following as the Top 5 Market Research Resolutions for the coming year. Consider implementing these resolutions and chart your successful course for 2011.

1. Go Mobile.
According to an Opera report released this week, global usage of mobile devices more than doubled in 2010, with 340 billion pages viewed. Mobile web access and smartphone penetration are both exploding as well, so there is no doubt left that online surveys must be expanded to support mobile device interaction. Even better, surveys should be available in multimode to offer ultimate flexibility. Respondents now have multiple web access options to choose from, and researchers cannot control that choice. If you regularly conduct online research projects, do not delay — now is the time to develop your mobile and multimode strategy.

2. Get Social.
Just like mobile device usage, social media is exploding everywhere. Online communities such as Facebook and Twitter are redefining how people communicate and interact. As of July 2010, Facebook had more than
125 million users in the U.S. alone, a growth rate of 352.6% in 24 months. Brands are taking advantage of the marketing boon offered by these sites, and researchers should be too. Social media usage is growing among nearly all demographic groups, and therefore these sites must be incorporated into your recruitment strategies in order to obtain representative sample.

3. Refine Design.
People are busier than ever before, so attracting and keeping their attention is a significant challenge. This cultural shift is directly responsible for the enormous success of Twitter – we like our communication to be as efficient and succinct as possible. These criteria should be applied to modern survey design as well. Long, complicated and text-heavy surveys are on their way out. Consider shorter, easier surveys that incorporate visually interesting graphics to engage respondents, while ensuring that your research objectives are still met.

4. Go Legit.
For individuals with the know-how, there are plenty of ways to inflict grave bias into research results. Survey duplications, speed-through completions, unauthorized access locations, etc. are becoming more are more prevalent in online research. If you are not already, start protecting data integrity by utilizing a reputable respondent authentication solution.

5. Be Cutting-Edge.
The first four resolutions listed here can really be summed up by this fifth one. Customers want research conducted and interpreted faster, easier and cheaper than ever before; and researchers have very full plates just competing for projects and satisfying clients. Often there isn’t much time leftover to devote to understanding and implementing new MR strategies and technologies on your own. The best way to remain ahead of the research curve is to partner with a solutions provider who can do that work for you. To ideally position yourself for tomorrow, begin utilizing cutting-edge survey and panel management software today.

AUSTIN, TX (December 21, 2010) - Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for robust and scalable survey and panel management software solutions, today announced that Kinesis Survey™ now includes built-in support for Google Analytics.

Kinesis Survey™ is the most advanced multimode survey solution for market research. By adding Google Analytics’ comprehensive web tracking metrics, the already robust reporting capabilities of Kinesis Survey™ are extended even further. Kinesis Survey™ users can now readily track survey respondent activity by each survey URL for all of their survey projects.

“Kinesis continually expands the functionality of our software to ensure it maintains its place as the most powerful survey solution for market research,” said Juha Vehnia, Kinesis CTO. “With Google Analytics support, Kinesis Survey™ now applies the world standard in web traffic measurement to online survey projects, thus offering our clients even deeper analytical and behavior measurement capabilities.”

Via Google Analytics, Kinesis Survey™ URLs can be tracked to identify metrics including page views, traffic sources, geographic locations, unique visitors, device types, operating systems and more. This data can be utilized to refine recruitment, sampling, quota management and survey design strategies, as well as to measure survey traffic over time. Google Analytics functionality is included at no additional cost for all Kinesis Survey™ projects.

“Market research is rapidly evolving due to the growth of mobile device usage and social media,” Vehnia added. “As the worldwide industry leader for mobile surveys, Kinesis understands that ready access to Google Analytics metrics including device type and traffic source will further aid our clients in their successful adoption of these emerging tools.”

Kinesis Survey™ 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. It supports a wide array of features, and provides an intuitive user interface and robust real-time reporting tools. In addition to Kinesis Survey™, the Kinesis product suite also includes advanced panel management and community website solutions.

About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a comprehensive 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, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.

AUSTIN, TX (November 17, 2010) - Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for robust and scalable survey and panel management software solutions, today announced that comScore, the leader in measuring the digital world, is expanding its usage of Kinesis Survey™ to deliver multimode surveys  worldwide.

comScore will utilize Kinesis Survey™ to conduct site profiling tasks in multimode, thereby providing respondents the flexibility to complete surveys using a computer, mobile phone, or other web-enabled device. comScore will deploy surveys powered by the Kinesis platform across several of the world’s top websites, with millions of surveys to be completed annually.

“comScore has long been an industry leader in adopting new research methods and technologies,” said Leslie Townsend, Kinesis President. “Today’s corporate websites must support both web and mobile traffic, which means site analyses and delivery options must be extended across platforms as well, and comScore is at the forefront of this movement. Kinesis offers the most advanced multimode platform, and we are of course very pleased that comScore has elected to showcase it.”

The expansion to multimode usage augments a two year relationship between comScore and Kinesis. Previously comScore utilized Kinesis’ CAMI® solution for mobile-only survey delivery.

“Kinesis’ mobile solution has aided comScore in our collection of digital marketing intelligence,” said Walter Ramdeholl, comScore Vice President. “Multimode surveys are a natural progression given that people are now utilizing a variety of devices to access the web, and Kinesis Survey™ provides us this flexibility on a global scale.”

Kinesis Survey™ is the leading multimode, multilingual survey solution.  It supports a wide array of features, and provides an intuitive user interface and robust real-time reporting tools. In addition to Kinesis Survey™, the Kinesis product suite also includes comprehensive panel management and community website solutions.

About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a comprehensive 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, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit http://comscore.com/About_comScore.