The Handbook of Mobile Market Research

Tools and Techniques for Market Researchers

Ray Poynter, Navin Williams, Sue York

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781118935774
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing Research
• Index: Business

The premier guide to mobile market research

The Handbook of Mobile Market Research is the first guide to focus exclusively on the use of mobile technology in market research. From a global perspective, more people own mobile phones than landlines or computers, and most people have their mobile phones with them at all times—along with their tablets, smartwatches, media players, and navigation devices. The continuous surge of mobile innovation provides unprecedented access to real-time consumer behaviour. Mobile market research allows users to reach more people, engage more people, and collect more valuable data as respondents are free to engage at their own pace, on their own time.

Industry forerunners Ray Poynter, Navin Williams, and Sue York employ decades of study to examine the present and future state of mobile market research, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of various approaches. This book contains clear, comprehensive knowledge for those who implement, utilise, and study the field. Readers will learn:

• The characteristics, scope, and importance of mobile market research
• Purposes and effects of principal tools like brand tracking, ad testing, customer satisfaction research, and research technology
• How mobile devices are used for qualitative and quantitative research by way of online focus groups, online discussions, mobile diaries, mobile ethnographies, and mobile surveys
• Aspects and implications of mobile computer interviews, mobile phone interviews, mixed-mode research, international mobile research, and research using passive data, panels, lists, and communities
• The significance of the mobile ecosystem, market research ethics, and research on research

Designed to be accessible and helpful for beginners and advanced users alike, The Handbook of Mobile Market Research is an extensive guide to one of the most promising, dynamic methods of data collection.

PART I
Mobile Market Research

The first part of this book provides an introduction to mobile market research, illustrates how it is being used, and explores the technology that underpins mobile market research.

Chapter 1 is an overview of mobile market research and provides a context for the rest of the book. The next chapter focuses on how mobile market research is being used in different contexts, categories, and markets.

The third chapter explores and explains the key technologies being relevant to mobile market research.

Part I covers:

1. Overview of Mobile Market Research
2. Mobile Research in Action
3. The Technology of Mobile Market Research

1
Overview of Mobile Market Research

INTRODUCTION

Mobile market research (sometimes abbreviated to MMR) is a topic that had been forecast as the next big thing in market research for more than ten years. By 2014, there was widespread agreement that it was finally coming of age and was already having a major impact on many aspects of market research, from quantitative to qualitative, and from local to global. In the future, most market researchers are likely to come into contact with mobile market research in their everyday work and therefore a good understanding of the opportunities, characteristics, limitations, and challenges of this mode is essential. Similarly, buyers and users of market research need to be aware of the implications of some or all of their research being collected via mobile devices.

WHAT DOES MOBILE MARKET RESEARCH MEAN?

Mobile market research refers to participants taking part in market research via mobile devices and market research about the use of mobile devices.

Until recently the term ‘mobile market research’ was largely synonymous with research conducted by or about mobile phones. However, since the arrival of additional mobile devices, such as tablets and phablets, the term ‘mobile market research’ has become broader.

More specifically, mobile market research typically refers to the following:

1. Quantitative research where the participants complete surveys on their mobile device.
2. Mixed-mode quantitative studies, where some participants complete surveys via a PC while others use a mobile device.
3. Quantitative research where participants allow applications on their mobile device to gather information about them or their environment, referred to as passive data collection.
4. Qualitative research, where the mobile device either facilitates communication (e.g. taking part in an online focus group from a tablet), or facilitates data collection (e.g. collecting photos and recordings), or a combination of the two.
5. Research communities where the mobile device is a key method of communication or participation.
6. Face-to-face research where the interviewers are using mobile devices to collect data, sometimes referred to as mCAPI (CAPI utilizing a mobile device).

Using participants' mobile phones to take part in CATI interviews is not always classed as mobile market research, but that might change in the future and a chapter on mCATI (CATI with mobile phones) is included in this book.

STANDARDIZED SOLUTIONS FOR MOBILE MARKET RESEARCH

When mobile market research first appeared on the scene, market researchers planning to use it often had to be very tech savvy and prepared to help develop or test solutions. However, for most people those days are gone.

Most mobile research is conducted via the international survey platforms such as Confirmit, through the mobile services of access panels such as Research Now, or through a specialist provider such as Revelation, MobileMeasure, or Locately: note – there are large and growing numbers in each of these categories. For most researchers it is not necessary to develop their own software solutions. In the more developed research markets, researchers will tend to use a conventional sample source such as an access panel, customer list, or community.

WHY THE INTEREST IN MOBILE?

There are four key drivers of the widespread interest in mobile market research:

1. The growing ubiquity of mobile devices.
2. People having their phones with them all the time, facilitating ‘in the moment’ research.
3. Growth in more powerful mobile devices, especially smartphones and tablets.
4. Passive data collection, recording information about participants without their having to actively enter information.

1. THE UBIQUITY OF MOBILE PHONES

Data about the penetration of mobile phones, smartphones, and tablets changes all the time, but in order to emphasize the scale of the mobile phenomenon, consider the following data from the ITU's Measuring the Information Society (ITU 2013) report:

• 6.8 billion mobile phones estimated to be in use, compared with the global population of about 7.2 billion.
• By the end of 2012, over 50% of the world's population were living in areas with at least 3G coverage.
• By the end of 2013 there were almost 2 billion mobile broadband subscriptions – with Ericsson forecasting that by the end of 2018 this figure would be 6.5 billion.

The world is quickly moving to a point where every economically active adult who wants a mobile phone will have one. The trend is very much towards devices with internet access, further widening the potential for mobile research. However, it should be noted that 6.8 billion devices does not mean that 6.8 billion people have a mobile device, as many people have more than one mobile device.

2. ‘IN THE MOMENT’

There is a widespread belief in marketing and market research that interviews conducted ‘in the moment’, for example, when someone is making a purchase, finishing a meal, or staying at a hotel, will reveal more than a survey conducted at a later date. Traditional research has relied on participants recalling details of interactions with products, services, and advertising, days or even weeks after the event. ‘In the moment’ approaches capture the information while it is still fresh in people's minds.

Most users of mobile phones have them with them all the time, for example Pew estimated that in 2012, 44% of Americans slept next to their phones (Pew Research Center 2012). This ‘always available’ characteristic of mobile devices finally allows researchers to conduct studies much closer to the ‘moment of truth’, that is, closer to when a product or service is being experienced.

3. PUTTING THE ‘SMART’ IN MOBILE MARKET RESEARCH

Early forms of mobile market research relied on SMS, WAP, or downloaded software (such as apps written in languages such as Java) to conduct research. These options were technically limiting (especially in the case of SMS) and sometimes required a high degree of cooperation from the participant.

By contrast, the larger, touchscreens of smartphones and the growing popularity of tablets has greatly increased the range of research that can be conducted via mobile market research. Similarly, the growth of higher speed internet connections, including 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi, has enabled mobile devices to be used in a growing number of ways.

Similarly, the standardization of the processes for writing apps, and downloading them from app stores, has opened up a wide range of alternatives for market research.

4. PASSIVE DATA COLLECTION

Mobile devices, especially smartphones and tablets, can collect a wide variety of information as the research participant goes about...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Epigraph
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Part I: Mobile Market Research
• Part II: Qualitative and Quantitative Research
• Part III: The Methods and Applications of Mobile Market Research
• Part IV: Researching the Mobile Ecosystem, Ethics, and the Future
• Glossary
• References
• About the Authors
• A Note of Thanks
• Index
• End User License Agreement