Research At Web Speed.

• Author: Yoder, Steven Van

Online research has become an important adjunct to traditional market research -- enabling companies to learn and react quickly and shape their strategies accordingly.

We live in an age of polling. The 2000 election cycle spawned more about public opinion concerning the candidates than ever before. The media now regularly taps viewers on everything from societal trends to purchasing behaviors, frequently using online research. Webbased information-gathering is emerging as the biggest change ever in research techniques as it creates a sophisticated tool that is altering the way businesses learn about consumers and subsequently make crucial market and financial decisions.

The desktop is evolving as an information delivery channel as powerful as television or newspapers. Today, half of all U.S. consumers have Internet access, and online research can often be used to gain market insight with greater speed, accuracy, creativity and cost-effectiveness than other methods, especially the old-fashioned market research sampling done over weeks or months.

Clearly, online research enables companies to gain real-time market knowledge. "Online research is about continuous market intelligence," says Jacob Brown of King, Brown & Partners, a market re search firm in San Francisco. "It provides a real-time window into the marketplace. "Out of no where, breaking news can impact your company," he adds. Further, in addition to awareness, companies need to continually "check the pulse of their marketplace in response to outside variables and gather market intelligence they can use immediately," says Brown.

Inside Research, an industry newsletter, estimates that in the next three years, up to 60 to 80 percent of research will be conducted via the Web. "The benefits are hard to ignore," says Ron Beall, professor of marketing at San Francisco State University. "Unlike slow and cumbersome mail surveys, with online research there are no postage costs and no stuffing envelopes. The data entry process is eliminated, and the speed is amazing. Within days -- and sometimes hours -- market information can be electronically routed directly into a spreadsheet."

One company that has become a true believer is General Mills, which last year conducted 20 percent of its research online. That number is expected to grow to 60 percent next year. The company believes that using the Web trims as much as 50 percent in costs and speeds up research by up to 75 percent. "Surveys that used...