The Marketing Value of Google Consumer Surveys

Marketers should be aware of a new service recently launched by Google that offers a different method for conducting useful online research.  The new Google Consumer Surveys service presents research questions prior to Internet users gaining access to certain content found on affiliated websites.  For example, a magazine website may initially block access to an article by presenting a research question.  When exposed to this “surveywall” users can then choose whether to answer the question before they are given access to the content.  (For websites erecting the surveywall, they benefit by receiving payment for each completed response.)

For marketers seeking respondent information, the cost for using the service is relatively low (as low as 10 cents per response).  However, the real benefit with this tool is the access it offers to a large number of respondents in a relatively short period of time.  The key to getting strong response rates appears to be with the incentive offered to the participants, namely access to online content.  According to Google, the presentation of a survey question to gain access to wanted content results in significantly higher response rates than can be achieved with other methods.

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Customer Research Hits a Speed Bump

When Businesses Can’t Stop Asking, ‘How Am I Doing?’ (New York Times)

For anyone who has spent time looking at the KnowThis.com website, you have undoubtedly noticed that marketing research is viewed as one of the most (if not the most) important tasks for nearly any organization. In fact, we emphasize this in our Marketing Research tutorial by noting: “Just as a well-built house requires a strong foundation to remain sturdy, marketing decisions need the support of research in order to be viewed favorably by customers and to stand up to competition and other external pressures.”

As part of this key marketing process, research directed at understanding customers should be at the top of the list as this information can help guide most marketing decisions.  This need for understanding customers is something that most organizations now take very seriously.  In fact, thanks to the Internet, it is safe to say that communicating with customers, such as having customers participate in surveys, is becoming somewhat routine.

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How Creative Promotions Benefit Advocacy Marketers

How 'Kony' Clip Caught Fire Online (Wall Street Journal)

Many people consider promotion a marketing activity that is mostly of interest to for-profit marketers.  Of course, it is easy to get this impression since for-profits far outspend other marketers when it comes to promotional campaigns.

Yet, marketing activity is used by nearly all types of organizations, including not-for-profits and even governmental agencies.  It is even used by one type of business that is often overlooked when discussing marketing - advocacy marketers.

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Predicting What Customers Will Buy Next

How Companies Learn Your Secrets (New York Times)

This is a fascinating story of how marketers learn about the needs of their customers and then use marketing approaches to target these needs.  What is so compelling is how marketers are using statistical analysis to analyze customer shopping trends, and then from these trends try to predict what customers will be buying.

There are many marketing concepts at play in this story, most built around buyer behavior.  For instance, the story explains how most customers’ buying decisions are ingrained and are, in effect, habits that are difficult to change.  However, certain life events do open the door to changing buying habits.  To address this, many leading companies, including Target, are using statistical techniques (called predictive analytics) to predict these life changing events.  A key part of this is tracking customer purchase patterns.  Yet, as the story discusses, marketers are gathering much more information than simply following what a customer purchases.  And the depths they go to in order to learn about customers is quite remarkable.

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