Research Tips
Participation in Market Research Isn’t Always Fun
Newspapers, magazines, Web sites, and TV shows often use reader and viewer polls as entertainment. These polls may be about topical issues, celebrities, or something else, but their primary purpose is to entertain those participating and viewing the results. In contrast, the purpose of market research is to provide information for use in decision making.
Participants may not enjoy providing data for market research purposes as much as providing data for polls whose primary purpose is entertainment, since the subject matter may be less interesting, and the differences in objectives mean that different types of questions need to be asked. While it may not always be possible to make providing market research data fun, participation can be encouraged by:
- Providing an explanation of the purpose of the research and how the results will be used.
- Offering an incentive for participation or some token of appreciation for the time invested.
- Using pre-testing to ensure that the data collection procedure places as small a burden as possible on respondents while still collecting the required data.