The market research industry worldwide faces huge challenges. What was once a vital avenue revealing the business matrix and consumer psyche has now shifted into an unnecessary expense or, at best, something that SurveyMonkey or Google Forms can handle. Rethinking traditional panels and participant reward mechanisms and transforming them into a platform-led business is crucial for our industry's credibility, addressing issues like low-quality results, fraud, and data fatigue.
The truth is under attack. Everywhere you look, common sense has become the global supreme court. AI allows people to think less and act quickly. TikTok, fake news, avatar armies, and bots can deliver something more powerful and infectious than the French Revolution in just one click or emoji. These changes have profound implications on our culture, values, business practices, and product development. The world is becoming more flexible than ever, except for industries that insist on sticking to their conservative ways.
In an article titled “The Respondent Experience: An Industry-Wide Concern,” published in Research World, the authors quote a member of Kantar’s leadership, stating that our industry needs to reduce screen-out levels, set acceptable standards for screening section lengths in questionnaires, and ensure screened-out respondents are adequately rewarded. While I believe this is a good step, it misses a fundamental question: Will the target consumers we aim to categorise ever participate in a traditional panel? If not, how can we still collect data?
Market research firms' leadership can keep rethinking indefinitely, but meanwhile, they continue selling services based on traditional panels. They keep selling tired panels, generating fatigue results, and exhausting field managers who chase unmotivated zombie respondents.
The real industry-wide concern is the lack of strong and solid motivation for participating in panels beyond monetary compensation. Are people who join for money or grocery points supposed to represent the everyday consumer or user in a specific category? These individuals are often unengaged, lacking the spirit of life, and unable to represent anyone but themselves. The bias we all try to avoid is inherent in the concept of professional survey takers and traditional panellists. Even if a panel member prefers a gift card over a salary, their primary motivation is the reward, leading them to complete surveys as quickly as possible, often without thoroughly reading the questions. This undermines the integrity of "market research," making it resemble more an addiction rehab centre for capitalism's leftovers.
We have to wake up. The truth is underrated not only because of TikTok but also because we have given up. We treat respondents like a bunch of teenagers. We shape results to look good just to survive the quarter. Instead of struggling with traditional panels and thus traditional processes, we need to perceive the entire market research process as a marketplace—a platform where multiple stakeholders benefit from different aspects within one solution. In this way, respondents will deliver honest responses in a much more cost-effective way that will allow the industry to thrive into the future of business, providing clients with credible insights into their products, strategies, and markets.
The marketplace approach in delivering superior value has dominated modern business, especially over the last decades. In their article published in the Harvard Business Review about platform and marketplace as a business strategy, Van Alstyne, Parker, and Choudary compare traditional businesses and platform businesses. In the context of the market research industry, traditional MR businesses offer one primary solution to one or more segments, focusing on maximising the lifetime value of individual customers at the end of a linear process. In other words, MR firms offer market insights based on a traditional panel.
In contrast, platform businesses deliver multiple solutions to diverse stakeholders, focusing on maximising ecosystem value through a circular, iterative process. The only sustainable and cost-effective way to save our future industry is to reward participants within a platform that allows them to complete their different life “jobs” in the easiest and most friendly way. Think about what your respondent is looking to achieve and take them home. Make the reward something that will dramatically help your respondent get their job done. Take them home.
In this way, you’d be surprised by the results. Your response rate will exponentially increase, data fatigue cleanup will be unnecessary, the resource-heavy panel management will disappear, and fraud? I’ve never heard of bots or VPN architects who seek to complete jobs like travel, bills, or rent. If this happens, I’d really miss the French Revolution.