Pros and cons of online research Essay

Technology Advisory Board is a leading international online marketing research and marketing consulting firm where engineers, scientists, computer scientists, information systems professionals, software developers, web developers, and executives in technology industries all over the world come to share ideas, opinions, and suggestions by participating in online research interviews and scientific surveys. The site also believes that respondent will learn as a panel member about upcoming technology trends and developments (since respondent have access to survey results giving one an opportunity to learn what one peers are thinking anytime). In addition, as a panel member one can earn extra cash by participating in an online survey or discussion and the amount depends on the length of the survey or discussion. The site also helps major international corporations, governmental agencies, and universities better informed about intelligent decisions relating to technology-related issues, new equipment and devices, and new software systems and services. The site faces a lot of challenges that will be discussed in the next paragraph. One of the obstacles to collecting information internationally from the panel members is the lack of consistency by the site information. Respondent have to update account each time he/she is to login into his account and the account information is not well documented. This can frustrate the respondent thereby hindering one of the objectives of the site in getting adequate views and opinions of respondents. The unavailability of the site services to all countries is another negative effect the site is facing as a global online research marketer. When some countries are restricted in participating, then I believe it is not a global marketing research marketer. In addition to the percentage of households without internet access in the world, technology advisory board must take the opportunity of reaching the remaining segment of people with access to internet through innovative ways of conducting the research. One option is to encourage the use of offline means of participating, since the online means is the only one used. Another option is using both the qualitative and the quantitative statistical models to get respondent views either offline or online. Lastly, technology advisory board can introduce offline e-mail survey which is inexpensive compared to the conventional online survey. However, the site makes use of the advantage of the versatility that the increased penetration of broadband offers online research marketers. In addition, the online survey is very fast in terms of getting speedy opinions and views from respondents. More importantly, online research marketers should develop marketing strategies not just from the findings of online research, but also the offline findings. What they can do is to encourage the introduction or use of the offline findings. They can do this by introducing new strategies in form of sending offline mails to panel members and require their opinions. In addition, they could introduce the use of feedbacks in their sites by asking respondents to give views about how the marketing research can be improved. On the other hand, both qualitative and quantitative research is needed before strategy can be defined by the marketers and this is necessary in forming new ways of improving online marketing research. In conclusion, the use of online marketing research has only being on the increased in the US than any other country in the world. I think this service should be encouraged especially in Asian, African and Latin American countries where it is believed marketers can capture demand in the nearest future. References Survey: Internet Should Remain Open to All. Marketing Memos: The Pro and Cons of Online Research Retrieved May 14, 2010, from http://www. consumeraffairs. com Technology Advisory Board (2010) Retrieved May 14, 2010, from http://www. technologyboard. com Consumers Losing Confidence in Online Commerce, Banking. Retrieved May 14, 2010, from http://www. consumeraffairs. com