Tim Macer, Meaning, recently chaired a part of the 2011 Mobile Research Conference. Here is his round-up of a few common themes that emerged across the event.
1. Mobile surveys can be a bit longer than we may have first thought. 8-12 questions is a common-sense length, but examples were presented of 30 and 60 questions, and much longer, when over an extended period. But is trying to push up the limit the start of the same slippery slope that has led to the downfall of online research?
2. The experience in emerging markets and less mature markets is very different. The penetration of mobile is so high in emerging markets that it far exceeds every other channel except face-to-face – it is the natural equivalent of online research.
3. In developed economies, there is an assumption that mobile research is a replacement for online. In reality, it seems to supplement it, and it is more of a replacement for telephone, face to face.
4. Mobile research is not one thing – it’s a multimodal channel in its own right, embracing self completion, interview-administered, quantitative or qualitative, visual, textual, voice and image, or passive, observational, which can be augmented with location or temporal data.
5. The sphere of mobile research is changing fast and it is continuing to evolve. It is not something that research can afford to ignore.
Tim also summarized each session. Read more about that here.
More info:
ww.meaning.uk.com
www.mobileresearchconference.com