Which produces better insights – mobile or online research?

Although mobile has become a key part of consumer lives, research agencies can still be hesitant to use mobile techniques out of concern that clients may be unfamiliar with them, or concerned about their effectiveness.
A study by research technology firm uSamp compared the use of online techniques with that of mobile, exploring the following hypotheses:

• Mobile methodology is preferable for shopper/shopability studies because mobile technology can capture insights closer to the moment of purchase, and it can deliver point-of-sale truth via photographic evidence, rather than relying on memory recall of an online respondent.

• Mobile research delivers more granular responses in sensory evaluations on IHUTS than laptop/desktop, because recall bias is eliminated.

• Mobile delivers richer insights overall, including on open-ended questions.

The research was based on a study of UK and US consumers’ in-store purchasing of a range of leading-brand crisps (potato chips in the USA). Research participants either completed the survey on their mobile device or online on their PC/laptop browser. The research was run as a mini-diary approach, with completion on their mobiles while in-store. Online respondents were asked to complete their next phase ‘as soon as possible’ after the purchase.
Findings suggested that there was a much higher accuracy among participants responding on mobile devices because they were less reliant on recall. When triangulating answers, for example on where the products were stocked on shelves, online respondents were found to be often guessing the answers. This study highlights the value of mobile research, in that it enables consumers to provide data with in the context of the environment in which they are currently operating. The only downside that was found relating to the use of mobile devices was that respondents were likely to be less patient when it came to complicated or difficult-to-complete surveys.

Citizen journalism and video diaries on Facebook

Facebook wanted to build a better understanding of what was important to teens and young adults in the 13-to-24-year-old age group This group is often seen as homogenous, and Facebook needed to build a more detailed and granular understanding of the individuals who would represent the next generation of consumers.
Working with research agency Crowd DNA, an expert in cultural research, a range of research approaches were applied including a large-scale online survey and interviews of consumers across 13 key markets (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Norway, Sweden, UK and the USA). A subset of this group was selected to take part in a form of citizen journalism to use their mobile devices to record short mobile video accounts of various aspects of their everyday lives, such as friends, family and their social and educational lives.
This technique, and the ability for it to enable participants to collect research data without being accompanied by a researcher, created a degree of candidness and depth that would not have been available from traditional techniques. Additionally, the importance of using visual rather than text-based methods to reach these demographics was highlighted by the researchers:²⁵

people growing up today express themselves via a new visual vocabulary, often replacing the need for text. It’s important that brand content be in a language that young people speak and that language is increasingly visual. Our work highlighted the need for brands and marketers to think about assets that will resonate for an image-oriented generation.