back of being nonprobability samples, and the interviews must not require too much
time.
There is increased use of on-line interviewing. A company can include a question-
naire at its Web page and offer an incentive to answer the questionnaire. Or it can
place a banner on some frequently visited site inviting people to answer some ques-
tions and possibly win a prize. Or the company can enter a target chat room and seek
volunteers for a survey. In collecting data on-line, however, the company must rec-
ognize the data’s limitations. The company cannot assume that the data are repre-
sentative of a target population, because the respondents are self-selected. People in
the target market who do not use the Internet or who don’t want to answer a ques-
tionnaire can bias the results. Still the information can be useful for exploratory re-
search in suggesting hypotheses that might be investigated in a more scientific
subsequent survey.
Many companies are now using automated telephone surveys to solicit market re-
search information. MetroHealth Systems in Cleveland used to have a dismal return
rate of 50 percent on its paper patient-satisfaction surveys. Then the company teamed
up with Sprint Healthcare systems of Overland Park, Kansas, to deliver an interactive
phone survey. Under the pilot project, patients who left the hospital received a phone
card with a toll-free number. When they dialed, a recording asked them several ques-
tions about their hospital experience. Results that once took months to sort now came
back in a few days, and more patients completed the survey.^18
And how do you provide incentives for customers to answer your automated sur-
vey? One popular approach is to use prepaid phone cards as an incentive. A survey
is programmed into an interactive call system that not only administers the survey
but also sorts the results virtually any way the client wants them. Then the client dis-
tributes the calling cards to its selected market segment. When the call users place
their free calls, a voice prompt asks them if they would like to gain additional min-
utes by taking a short survey. NBC, Coca-Cola, and Amoco are some of the compa-
nies that have used prepaid phone cards to survey their customers.^19
Step 3: Collect the Information
The data collection phase of marketing research is generally the most expensive and
the most prone to error. In the case of surveys, four major problems arise. Some re-
spondents will not be at home and must be recontacted or replaced. Other respon-
dents will refuse to cooperate. Still others will give biased or dishonest answers. Finally,
some interviewers will be biased or dishonest.
Yet data collection methods are rapidly improving thanks to computers and
telecommunications. Some research firms interview from a centralized location. Pro-
fessional interviewers sit in booths and draw telephone numbers at random. When
the phone is answered, the interviewer reads a set of questions from a monitor and
types the respondents’ answers into a computer. This procedure eliminates editing
and coding, reduces errors, saves time, and produces all the required statistics. Other
research firms have set up interactive terminals in shopping centers. Persons willing
to be interviewed sit at a terminal, read the questions from the monitor, and type in
their answers. Most respondents enjoy this form of “robot” interviewing.^20
Several recent technical advances have permitted marketers to research the sales
impact of ads and sales promotion. Information Resources, Inc. recruits a panel of
supermarkets equipped with scanners and electronic cash registers. Scanners read
the universal product code on each product purchased, recording the brand, size,
and price for inventory and ordering purposes. Meanwhile, the firm has recruited
a panel of these stores’ customers who have agreed to charge their purchases with
a special Shopper’s Hotline ID card, which holds information about household char-
acteristics, lifestyle, and income. These same customers have also agreed to let their
television-viewing habits be monitored by a black box. All consumer panelists re-
ceive their programs through cable television, and Information Resources controls
the advertising messages being sent to their houses. The firm can then capture
through store purchases which ads led to more purchasing and by which cus-
tomers.^21
Gathering Information
and Measuring
Market Demand^113