Despite reaching critical milestones such as global ubiquity of mobile coverage, 30% global penetration of smartphones (over 60% in the U.S.), overtaking the PC in shipments, and this week reaching the milestone of 1,000,000 apps available in the marketplace some naysayers hold on to the idea that the mobile revolution is an isolated event, not an evolutionary leap. In this post I’m going to try to put the arguments to rest and prove that 2011 was the tipping point. Continue reading »

Rather than grow larger and larger panels with dozens of profiling questions repeated over and over, perhaps we should find new ways of identifying qualified participants. With some very basic filtering and analysis of my customer database, for example, I can reach response rates in excess of 30%. By targeting followers of relevant brands on Twitter, I can do the same in those cases where I need to reach outside my CRM system. Continue reading »

The strategic consolidation trend in market research continues, with two interesting announcements today. The first was the news that online survey software giant Confirmit was acquiring mobile research pioneer Techneos. The second was that Kantar had acquired the long on the auction block GMI and was rolling them into their Lightspeed panel offering.

Both make sense for a variety of reasons, and both are very telling about how Confirmit and Kantar read the future of the industry. I also will be so bold as to make a prediction for the next steps Confirmit and Kantar will make to build off of these acquisitions within the next six months. Let’s look at each one. Continue reading »