Kantar's Profiles Blog

Video is here.

The trends indicate that video is going to push the data traffic usage over the next big peak. First text was all the rage, then came the time of pictures and everyone was taking a ‘selfie’ and now we are moving into the next age of content – the video age. With the increased abilities of smartphones, tablets and webcam, video content is exploding around the internet.

Privacy and security of data make the news on a constant basis - the risks and the exposure to bad data security is a threat to brands and consumers. International laws are constantly updated or created to make sure privacy and data security cover the evolving needs of today's consumers. 

For those not aware, video is here.

Social media sites have embraced the use of video as a main activity for their followers. Video is being used to explain (or give instructions), give opinions, share information or give updates. Video may soon become the new ‘texting’.

Mobile industry data sites are expecting the use of video to be the main usage of data over the next few years. It already has seen some growth, but the expectation is that it will soon eclipse anything else that we do on the smartphone.

To App or not to App?

Pepsi vs. Coke? Android vs. Apple? There never seems to be a right answer to these questions, but people are still strongly opinionated about their preferred brand.

One question that may be up for debate even longer is app vs. web.  

There are pages of stats and infographics, including the examples below, that highlight the strengths of apps for people to gain access on their mobile. Some things might always (currently) be done via the browser and even via the PC (i.e., banking) but when there is a choice the app is head and shoulders above.

After an initial burst of interest in mobile ‘location’ services, the hubris died down a little. However, there has been renewed interest in location, once again, as technology has made some strides to catch up with the expectations of the marketing research industry.

Location is seen as a piece of the puzzle within the ‘Path-to-Purchase’ process to help understand how consumers react within the store and what might impact them at the point of sale. Simply, where do they finally make the purchase?

Our industry is at a cross roads, not for the first time. More than ten years ago, the online revolution transformed the way marketing research was conducted and allowed us to tap into a more readily available set of respondents.

Fast forward to today and a similar shift is underway with mobile. Our need to engage willing survey participants is again a driving factor. This time, however, it’s from traditional, static online to online on-the-go. This shift is arguably a lesser transformation than an offline mode moving to surveys being programmed, completed and returned through an online platform. But it is nevertheless significant.

No, actually they do.

There is a feeling that mobile surveys make open-ended questions more difficult. Mobile is used mostly as a communications device -- writing or texting is one of the main activities that we use it for. We see this behaviour every day in the streets where everyone is writing to someone on their device regardless of it being a text, an email or social media post.

Does the distraction induced by mobile devices impact a respondent’s attention?

Getting feedback from panelists gives you a perspective about survey design that you sometimes miss. They are honest and straight to the point. Whether on PC or mobile, respondents consider grid questions tedious and rate surveys with more grid questions as less enjoyable. Comments include:

• Too many questions on the pages. Too many columns. Difficult keeping track of what box to check.
• This survey was HORRIBLE. It was TOO wide & TOO long to fit the screen so I had to keep sliding back & forth.
• I hate having to fill in so many bubbles.
• I can’t stand surveys with buttons across and all those rows down. They give me a headache.

Recently, we’ve been receiving inquiries from our clients around the world on the length of surveys. With increasing numbers of respondents accessing surveys via mobile devices, one of the key questions is how long is too long on a mobile device? To address this question Lightspeed GMI has conducted research in Australia, China, India, and the United States.