|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||
 NEWS-TRENDS-ANALYSIS
|
TRENDS & ANALYSIS Media Polling - Serious Tool or Pure Entertainment? 
It is the fashion flavour of the month. It has become a national pastime. It says much about the trivial motivations of society but doesn't necessarily mirror it. What are we talking about? Answer - On line Polling. Michael Maguire asks if on line polling has a serious purpose for marketers or is it just pure entertainment? In the last few years our popular newspapers have engaged in instant readership polling on single issue topics ranging from opinion on political initiatives and government performance to reality programme feedback, and everything inbetween. Television, radio and Internet output has followed suit and a recent TV series on 100 best films, movie stars, rock songs etc use viewer perspectives to provide popular entertainment even if expressed consumer choice is often more than a little 'surprising.' 
The memorable BBC poll on the Top 100 Britons took the process a stage further by using popular celebrities like Jeremy Clarkson, Rosie Boycott and Andrew Marr to champion individual names to promote the series and to encourage viewer voting! The viewers poll of the top 10 ‘Great Britons that ever lived’ included John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Princess Diana. While Sir Winston Churchill and Brunnel were first and second, viewers put Princess Diana a close third! Indeed historic heavyweights such as The Duke of Wellington, Dame Margaret Thatcher and Lawrence of Arabia were somewhat down the list, prompting one to ponder if this process of audience engagement really reflects prevailing attitudes and opinion or is there some frivolity at play? Indeed does 'reality television' mirror reality? And are there any lessons for serious market research that this form of consumer polling might reveal? To begin with, effective marketing decisions depend on accurate research and many businesses invest heavily in tracking customer views on everything from brand appreciation to advertising effectiveness as part of a wider consumer behaviour monitoring process. Such research will usually involve the use of surveys or focus groups. This means that survey design needs to deliver meaningful and unambiguous information, usually quantitative in nature, using sampling processes that fully represent the characteristics of a target market. Focus groups perform similar roles but centre on securing qualitative information. In both cases the processes need to be controlled to maximise information and minimise error. In other words if I have invested in research I want to be sure that it tells me what I need to know and I can rely on its accuracy. 'Empirical evidence suggests that those who use premium rate phone calls to vent a view on populist topics are not necessarily paying the phone bills' This is where on line and readership polling falls down. It is often too simplistic to deliver credible results and is uncontrolled. Further, empirical evidence suggests that those who are prepared to offset the cost of premium rate phone calls to vent a view on some populist topic or other, are not necessarily paying the phone bills and this might say a lot about the profiles of media voters! Few professional marketers would base decisions on such results. In reality viewer and readership polls, certainly in the UK, provide perfect fodder for popular entertainment, as the findings are so often unpredictable. As a colleague of mine recently quipped, 'on line polling is part of the culture of the because I'm worth it' generation.' However there is also a positive lesson for marketing in all this. The ease with which people appear to be willing to provide personal opinions means that the process of market research is not only readily understood by the public, but is accepted as part of everyday life; a feature that was less true a decade ago when people were more reserved. So the next time you are stopped in the street by someone engaged in legitimate market research, you know that you have a reasonable expectation that your opinions will be properly assessed and you feel happy about it. You may feel less happy about the younger members of your family who are projecting their opinions down your phone line at home; after all cultural expression has always carried a price tag!
You may contact Michael Maguire at:
© Quintus Management (2009) |
|
|