Web-Based Market Research: Issues to Consider

The factors involved in selecting a web-based survey tool will vary greatly from Market research project to Market research project. However, five general matters need to be considered when differentiating between products.

• User Control: The ability for the Market researcher to manipulate the “look and feel” of survey items is often an important consideration. For example, the ease of editing the contents of a survey item or manipulating the layout of the survey is imperative. Many survey applications include templates of standard survey items (e.g., select only one, select all that apply, text response boxes) that the researcher uses to build the survey.

• Ease to Customize: In many situations, templates of standard survey items are suitable. However, due to the nature of some Market research questions, standard survey items may not be appropriate for collecting some types of data. Therefore, it might be important for the researcher to use non-standard data collection items (e.g., rank order a series of items) that cannot be created using templates.

• Turnaround Time: The timeframe between when a researcher receives initial approval to conduct a study (e.g., IRB, funding agency), and the time that the investigator needs to begin data collection is often an important consideration. This is especially true if the researcher needs to conduct any type of pilot test during the early stages of the Market research project.

• Analysis Tools: Many researchers prefer to extract data from the survey tool and conduct the analysis using a standalone software application (e.g., SPSS). However, some web-based survey tools have built in reports that allow the investigator to review summary results while the survey is still active (i.e., no need to export data from the survey application and import it into another product). Most of these internal reports provide basic demographics (e.g., number of respondents, percentage responding “yes” to a certain item).

• Researcher’s Cost: The cost of using varying survey applications will be dependent upon the arrangement the researcher negotiates with external vendors or organizational policies related to cost recoupment for use of institutional resources. For many market research projects, cost considerations become a primary factor in selecting a survey tool.