Attention Researchers: Google Surveys, FRIEND OR FOE?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Let the debate begin!
Attention Researchers: Google Surveys, FRIEND OR FOE?
4 Responses to “Attention Researchers: Google Surveys, FRIEND OR FOE?” - Leave a Reply
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Melanie says:
A little bit of both, I would say. Definitely a competitor in some instances, but competition is good, and makes us all push ourselves and our companies. However, the GCS product is not fit for all purposes. I believe that if we need focus on making recommendations based on research objectives, we’ll all be just fine. That means staying current, evolving our own products and skills, understanding all of the implications, and being able to have those deep discussions about what’s best and why. And that makes our jobs a little more difficult today than they were yesterday.
I do believe the above statements are true about all new entrants. Facebook, Twitter, New Firm XYZ. We have to keep our eye on the marketplace, see what current and new players are doing, and be ready to adapt.
Innovate or Evaporate!
Chris Bonney says:
I checked it out a while ago at the request of a client who thought it looked interesting and cheap. It is interesting, albeit with the same kind of sampling issues we’d have about any more or less self-selecting sample. The question types were also limited when I checked, and not all that cheap when you start adding questions up. I was not impressed overall, but expect that clients that are especially cheap will be willing to make methodological trade-offs in return for the price, and I think those of us who do thoughtful custom research will not lose business to it since I believe it will appeal most to those who wouldn’t have come to us in the first place. At least for now.
Ed Sugar says:
First, thank you Melanie and Chris for offering some great insight to this very important topic.
As regular readers of the MB Blog might remember I first suggested that Google would be a player in our industry back on February 9, 2011, when Merrill poached this subject with his wonderful idea of Fatwin.
I think we all have to first give Google a lot of credit for entering the market place by initially pursuing a specific segment of the market whose needs were not being met – the growing number of D.I.Y. researchers. Yes D.I.Y ers have access and knowledge of the tools to collect survey data (Survey Monkey, Qualtrics, Constant Contact, etc), but now they have someone who can offer them a cheap solution to the acquisition of sample. At first glance Chris is dead on “it will appeal most to those who wouldn’t have come to us in the first place. At least for now.”
Unfortunately that “at least now” is slowly coming to an end. Last month in an e-mail correspondence with a CEO of a mid-size full-service agency, this person was commenting on the slow start their company was having and the various changes within the industry, “I have a lot of face time and phone time with prospects – several a week. Almost universally, they are doing from ‘some’ to ‘lots’ of D.I.Y. It’s a huge part of what people are doing now.”
Second, Google deserves a lot of credit for their first attempt at political polling. Though Nate Silver was widely acknowledged as the data hero of the US election for his in-depth scrutiny of the Presidential polls, his final analysis contained a surprise – Google Consumer Surveys was the second most accurate predictor of the 2012 election outcome. Not too shabby for novice rookie.
The marketing research industry for the last 50+ has been enamored and infatuated with “Black Box” data solutions. Just about every company that has broken through and been ranked as one of the top 50 full service providers has developed some sort of “Black Box” data solution. Many of them have been very successful and some have reached legendary status elevating their companies as the leaders of our industry.
Well, guess what – Larry Paige and Sergey Brin are the two undisputed, world heavyweight champions when it comes to creating, maintaining and marketing the greatest “Black Box” data solution the world has ever known. Now, Larry and Sergey have decided one way to monetize 15+ years of behavioral data that they have been collecting, analyzing and modeling, is to enter the field of marketing research. Oh by the way, Mark Zuckerberg, Dick Costolo, Jeff Weiner, Tim Cook, Steve Ballmer, and Jeff Bezos all have successful companies that have built similar “Black Box” data solutions and are looking to monetize on all the behavioral and opinion data that they have been collecting, analyzing and modeling. And these are all people whose main common goal in life is to defeat and out perform Larry and Sergey’s company.
Melanie, I love your “Innovate or Evaporate!” line. I would add as a corollary “If you can’t beat them, at least see if they will help you update or innovate your company’s current ‘Black Box’ data solution.”
This past November a noted corporate researcher when asked to comment on the changes that have recently occurred in marketing industry told me “There have been more changes in the past 18 months than in the prior 18 years”. I am not sure how true that is, but all I can say is buckle up as the next 36 months are going to be one wild ride for our industry and profession.
Merrill Dubrow says:
In case you are interested in what Google Consumer Surveys has to offer.
Below is a link to an article written by Katrina Lerman at Communispace about her experiences.
http://www.greenbookblog.org/2013/03/25/google-consumer-surveys-friend-or-foe/
And to check out your inferred demographics on Google:
http://google.com/ads/preferences