Being 'Smart' With Your Data Integration

Most of us know that the mobile phone industry is on a
pretty serious surge of personal use. In fact, think of one person you know
that does not have a mobile phone. Coming up short? This is precisely the
reason why all marketing researchers should have a strong focus on mobile.

According to the Pew Research Center, nearly
two-thirds of adults in the U.S. own a mobile phone of some kind. The
statistics show that the majority of mobile usage goes to text messaging and
voice calls. This is understandable; but how much of mobile phone usage is
being employed for internet or email use? 89% of mobile device users are on the
internet at least once a week, and 88% are using email at the same rate. Think
about what having this information could possibly do for your research
techniques.

The Pew Research Center also found that of U.S. adults who
own a mobile phone, 7% are 'mobile-dependent,' meaning that they do not have
home broadband service and have limited options for going online other than
their mobile device. With the inevitable and exponential growth of technology,
making mobile phones more streamlined, these numbers are sure to rise in the
coming years. New generations are coming along that have never known a world
without incredibly intelligent mobile devices, which could mean that desktops
may one day become a thing of the past.

Smarter data
collection

Now we are able to be smarter about the data we are
collecting, and integrate insights with other survey data: survey data from
syndicated studies, social media, and behavioral data. There are a lot of great
things happening in our industry' we can now capture a holistic view of the
consumer without asking (a lot of) questions. We need to use the effects of
mobile to our advantage, not just adapt to evolving technologies.

Although there has been an effort to change surveys, there
are still large portion that are incompatible with mobile devices. Moreover, users
prefer apps over browsers on their mobile. Survey taking on mobile devices
takes longer than on a PC. A 10-15 minute survey on a PC will take 37% longer
on an Android device and 43% longer on an iPhone. iPad length of interview is
similar to PC, only 6% longer.

As data becomes increasingly integrated, researchers are
given more opportunities to boost engagement and shorten surveys. The world of
'Big Data' has granted us access to numerous data sources that can be blended
with quantitative research. The result is obtaining more insights through fewer
questions. This makes writing surveys for mobile users much easier because we
can:

By bringing in third party data, we have the opportunity
make surveys more enjoyable and engaging. This will help us sustain our most
valuable assets, the consumers who provide their input.

Increasingly
researchers are experimenting with leveraging third party segmentations to
provide the richness of profile that often was proprietarily developed.
Lightspeed GMI has partnered with several leading providers of marketing
segmentation data to allow clients the opportunity to both target with and
append third party segments based on lifestyle, life stage, attitudes,
behaviors and demographics.