Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

Face-to-face with uncertainty: Moving qualitative research through and beyond COVID-19

Article • Drago Djourov, WARC Best Practice, May 2020

Researcher Drago Djourov outlines how online methods can help brands make sense of what’s happening right now but makes the case for why we need to go back to face-to-face research post COVID-19.

Let’s put a smile on that scale: Findings from three web survey experiments

Article • Tobias Gummer, Vera Vogel, Tanja Kunz and Joss Roßmann, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 62, No. 1, 2020, pp. 18-26

Graphical symbols such as smileys and other emoticons are prevalent in everyday life. Paralleling their increasing use in private text messaging and even in business communication, smileys and other emoticons also have been used more frequently in surveys.

The possible benefits of reporting percentage point effects

Article • George Terhanian, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 61, No. 6, 2019, pp. 635-650

Many academic researchers regard logistic regression as the preeminent analytic approach for modeling binary outcomes.

What you see as an advertiser is NOT what the audience really gets

Research Paper • Dmitry Gaiduk, ESOMAR, Fusion, 2019

Complementing survey research with non-conscious tools allows researchers to gain a better understanding of what really drives consumer decisions: emotions, biases and stereotypes.

Qualitative semiotics: Can we research consumer meaning-making?

Article • Chris Barnham, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 61, No. 5, 2019, pp. 478-491

The notion of "meaning" is central to marketing because it is only through the making of meaning that "added value" can be created.

Controlling social desirability bias

Article • Ronald B. Larson, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 61, No. 5, 2019, pp. 534-547

Social desirability bias can change the results from marketing experiments and surveys. However, there are few illustrations that show how serious social desirability bias can be.

The world after CAWI. Are we at the threshold of a new era of research? Bots as a tool for data collecting

Research Paper • Anna Martenka, Salomea Świerkowska and Tomasz Dulinicz, ESOMAR, Congress, 2019

Play, a Polish telecommunications brand, addresses how new communication technologies, especially chatbots and voice assistants, can be used to gain knowledge about consumers.

Integrating Digital Conversations: Laying it on thick with social intelligence

Research Paper • Ellie Osborne and Oliver Roberts, ESOMAR, Fusion, 2018

GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical company, used social listening to collect data findings that were grounded on naturally occurring consumer conversations about athlete's foot in the US and South Korea.

Alternative methods for selecting web survey samples

Research Paper • Melanie Revilla and Carlos Ochoa, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 60, No. 4, 2018, pp. 352-365

Probability-based sampling is the gold standard for general population surveys. However, when interested in more specific populations (e.g., consumers of a particular brand), a lot of research uses data from non-probability-based online panels.

Examining survey response styles in cross-cultural marketing research: A comparison between Mexican and South Korean respondents

Research Paper • Christoph Beuthner, Maren Friedrich, Carsten Herbes and Iris Ramme, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 60, No. 3, 2018, pp. 257-267

Modern social and marketing research relies heavily on surveys to collect data. At the same time, it is well established that survey responses are influenced by response style biases that vary across individuals, countries and cultures.

Low engagement? Exploring artificial intelligence techniques to enhance survey experience

Research Paper • Joaquim Bretcha, Oriol J. Bosch and Ezequiel Paura, ESOMAR, APAC, 2018

Advises researchers and practitioners about the advantages and limits of using artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate the implementation of innovative survey response formats.

On the myth of reported precision in public opinion polls

Research Paper • Robert A. Peterson, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 60, No. 2, 2018, pp. 147-155

Many public opinion polls report a mythical margin of error. These reported margins of error are calculated on the basis of a nonexistent (fictitious) dichotomous poll question and are completely unrelated to the actual question responses in a poll.

Trap questions in online surveys: Results from three web survey experiments

Research Paper • Mingnan Liu and Laura Wronski, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 60, No. 1, 2018, pp. 32-49

This study examines the use of trap questions as indicators of data quality in online surveys. Trap questions are intended to identify respondents who are not paying close attention to survey questions, which would mean that they are providing sub-optimal responses to not only the trap question itself but to other questions included in the survey.

From analyst to simulation architect: the gamification of MR

Article • Brian Carruthers, Event Reports, MRMW Europe, November 2017

Market research is changing; questionnaires lead to professional respondents rather than the true target audience – the solution for some has been to rethink research through gamifications and simulations of real world situations.

Using mobile for market research in Africa: Insight on incentive-driven behaviour

Research Paper • Harman Johar and Al Ismaili, ESOMAR, Congress, 2017

This paper provides key learnings for the use of mobile surveys in developing markets, particularly Africa, and is based on a series of experiments in Kenya exploring how best to use incentives.

Are we getting worse at political polling? Analysis of historical polling errors in elections

Research Paper • Jon Puleston, ESOMAR, Congress, 2017

This paper is a summary of analysis of an international database of over 30,000 polls from 473 elections between 1936 and 2017, to assess accuracy trends within opinion polling in light of recent criticism.

Head Or Heart: The Conflicts of Political Polling

Article • Alex Wheatley, WPP Atticus Awards, Grand Prix, 2017

This article looks at whether it is possible to ascertain the right questions to ask the right people in order to make a prediction in political polling.

Survey flaws obscure true insights

News • 04 August 2017

SINGAPORE: Consumers can’t be trusted when it comes to reporting their own behaviour and marketers should look beyond traditional surveys, according to an industry expert.

How consumers shop online in Japan and Taiwan

Article • Low Lai Chow, Event Reports, MRMW Asia-Pacific, June 2017

This article offers insights into the online behaviours of consumers in Japan and Taiwan, and whether traditional consumer surveys need include passive tracking data.

What Survey Researchers Can Learn from the 2016 U.S. Pre-Election Polls: How to Fine-Tune Survey Methods and Restore Credibility

Research Paper • George Terhanian, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 57, No. 2, 2017, pp. 182-189

This article examines what went wrong with pre-election polls for the 2016 U.S. presidential election and offers solutions to restore credibility to survey methods.

Political polling issues are "pilot error"

News • 09 June 2017

NEW YORK: Elections provide the forum where research and polling get the most exposure, and while flawed 2016 forecasts in the US and UK delivered powerful blows to the credibility of the practice, the main issue seems to be one of "pilot error".

Forum: BPC/MRS enquiry into election: Ipsos MORI response and perspective

Research Paper • Roger Mortimore, Paul Baines, Robert Worcester and Mark Gill, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 59, No. 3, 2017, pp. 285-300

This Forum article considers the unsatisfactory results of pre-election opinion polling in the 2015 British general election and the BPC/MRS enquiry report into polling by Sturgis et al., providing a response from Ipsos MORI and associated researchers at King’s College London and Cranfield Universities.

Picking winners: new product concept testing with item response theory

Research Paper • Chunyu Li, Ling Peng and Geng Cui, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 59, No. 3, 2017, pp. 335-354

This paper describes how, based upon item response theory (IRT) and its differential item functioning (DIF), two studies were designed to address two important issues – adopting effective items or inviting proper respondents – involved in the identification of successful new concepts, to test new concepts with different levels of newness.

Slice it, Dice it, and Stitch it Back Together – An Asia Perspective: Using split questionnaire design to improve data quality, efficiency and the participant experience

Research Paper • Elizabeth May, Harvir S Bansal and Avik Halder, ESOMAR, Asia Pacific, May 2017

This paper examines whether the use of split questionnaire design can improve survey response, data quality, efficiency and participant experience in the APAC region.

Is shopping cultured? An exploration into the global language of consumer decision making

Research Paper • Alexander Wheatley, Jon Puleston and Joaquim Bretcha, ESOMAR, Latin America, April 2017

This paper describes research that explores whether consumer decision-making, in relation to shopping across different categories and seven national markets, is influenced by culture.

Quantitative research