While the market research industry was hit hard during the recession, researchers are finding that when surveying people at shopping malls, more and more consumers are approaching them (rather than vice-versa) and will participate in the research based on the fact that they are able to try out the iPad.
Surveys are a great way to not only find out what people think about your product or service, but also a way to find more information about your target audience. This can be helpful in a number of ways including giving companies the freedom to alter their messaging or offerings to reflect the feelings of their customers. Survey feedback also helps target customers by their geographical location, interests, etc.
However, often times producing enough respondents – to make your survey data is more legitimate – can be a challenge. Your customers or potential customers have busy lives, just as you do. So how can you entice them to help you out?
While the iPad may not be feasible, especially if you aren’t conducting your survey at a physical location, you may find that offering something of value – like a discounted price off of a future purchase, an exclusive promotion or even something as simple as just giving them tips or advice of some kind – will do the trick and help to get more responses.
Do you conduct surveys of your customers? Do you offer them anything if they respond?
What are your friends, family and colleagues up to? In high school and college my friends and I could keep track of each other by checking our IM statuses. Then MySpace and facebook became the more popular way to see what people were up to. Now, more and more location-based services are popping up, allowing people to let the world know where they are and what they’re doing, allowing them to find deals close to them geographically, etc.
This offers a big opportunity for advertisers to target their consumers through an additional channel: their phones. According to market researcher, BIA/Kelsey, mobile advertising in the U.S. is expected to reach $3.1 billion in 2013 – going from $320 million in 2009.
A recent USA Today article cites information from market researcher Nielsen that says by the end of 2011 smartphones are expected to be the majority of mobile devices available. Additionally, as of right now about 5% of the over 225,000 iPhone applications have location services. I personally have the Motorola Droid, and while the Droid doesn’t have as many apps as the iPhone, a lot of the applications are also location-based.
Now, while all these location-based services are really cool, are we in TMI overload? I know this discussion has been going on for a long time, but location-based services, like Foursquare, Gwalla, and Loopt are not going away any time in the near future. In fact, more and more like-services are popping up everywhere and growing immensely popular.
I’m not so sure I want to know where all my friends and family are at all times of the day. Then again, I don’t really want to know most of the information that finds itself in my feeds on facebook. On the other hand, I’m sure there are people who don’t care where I am either – whether my status says I’m at my parents or at the dog park. However, what anyone puts as their status is a bit different as to having your phone be your personal tracker of where you are and what you are doing.
Regardless of whether or not these apps are putting us in TMI overload – they definitely are cool and it’ll be interesting to see what’s next!
Do you use location-based applications on your phone? Which ones do you use the most?
A non-scientific poll of office workers this afternoon in Woburn on the day of the official launch of the iPad tablet by Apple suggests that men like the name iPad – while women tend to correlate it disfavorably with feminine hygiene products.
I think the name is OK and that people will likely become tired of the joke – if they ever laughed in the first place. If the iPad rocks as most Apple products seem to do these days, it’s not likely to matter much anyway.
