Using the web to overcome the obstacles to consumer research?

Citation

Pitta, D.A. (2006), "Using the web to overcome the obstacles to consumer research?", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 23 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2006.07723cag.001

Using the web to overcome the obstacles to consumer research?

The marketing environment changes with remarkable speed. Telemarketers experienced a slow and steady decline in the effectiveness of their efforts over the years. That decline was punctuated with a major shock, the advent of government mandated “Do not call” lists. As a result, millions of telephone subscribers opted out of the telemarketing arena, insulating themselves from promotional telephone calls.

Similarly, the abuse of telephone surveys by telemarketers poisoned the technique. Too many consumers fear that the innocent telephone survey they encounter will morph into a sales pitch. Increasing numbers of consumers view the now common “courtesy call” as a thinly veiled promotional contact. Some individuals have stated, “If they were courteous, they would not call”. Others just do not wish to devote their precious time to answering questions delivered by disembodied voices. In both instances, consumers fear that they have more to lose than to gain by cooperating.

Some promotional arrangements have targeted consumers who were willing to accept promotional offers. One of the earliest was a coupon company that identified consumers who shared their purchase interests in exchange for a series of price-off coupons. The idea was attractive since coupons could be targeted to interested consumers. Redemption rates were much higher than for coupons that were distributed in a broadcast fashion.

It was only a matter of time until an astute marketer used an internet vehicle to target consumers willing to complete surveys. Resting on a technological foundation of new software, completing a consumer survey online provides numerous advantages. First, the cost is much less than it would be for a direct mail or mall intercept in-person survey. Not only are the costs of the survey administrator negligible, but also the data processing costs are reduced because the consumer completes the survey and simultaneously enters the data in a database. The first of the voluntary online survey web sites takes advantage of those economies.

Freeride.com[www.freeride.com]

Freeride.com first came to our attention in a publicity release. The release stated that the web site attempts to combine the promotional offer model with the consumer survey model. Visitors to the Freeride.com web site are invited to sign up and join. They are greeted by a classic inducement to participate in online surveys and earn a reward. In this case the reward is quantified in tokens that may be used at selected retailers. The web site name was prompted by the hitchhiker image. Hitchhikers do not pay to ride with a generous driver, instead they “get a free ride”. The name conjures a “something for nothing” image. The image is not quite true. Freeride.com members provide value in exchange for the tokens they receive. The site states, “Take online surveys and start earning rewards today! When you join FreeRide.com, you can start earning money right away by taking free online surveys. There’s no catch and no sign-up fee. Just register for free and you can start taking paid online surveys in minutes! Don’t delay! Take your first online survey today and you can earn great rewards like gift certificates and merchandise from your favorite retailers and restaurants for every survey you take!”

Registration requires supplying an e-mail address as well as personal identification information such as name, address, date of birth, a password and gender. All of the information is required. We tried to omit one piece and were immediately prompted to complete all of the information in the online form. Presumably, all of the information is relevant when considering survey results. Immediately, we were conducted to another web page; almost immediately, we received several e-mail messages.

The web page was titled Part 2, and we were encouraged to complete Part 2 to receive our reward. Part 2 contained 32 separate links to offers, newsletters and request for information. The links spanned categories ranging from groceries to insurance. All of the links had choices Yes and No and most of the Yes boxes were pre-checked. In our judgment, the 50 free tokens come at a substantial cost that outweighs the value of the information. Some of the links were to retailers who might provide discounts. Other links went to unlikely organizations. For example, the Babies and Kids category listed two links: one provided discounts from a retailer the other was a donation link to a children’s charity. The ”free” nature of Freeride.com is questionable.

The e-mail messages. On registration, we received two e-mail messages. The first e-mail message welcomed us to Freeride.com and notified us that we had free bonus tokens in our account. The message went on to say that Freeride.com offered three separate programs that offer additional tokens. They are: Shopping, Refer a Friend, and Read Your Email. Shopping will earn tokens analogously to the percentage rebates that some programs offer. Refer a Friend allows members to earn up to 1000 tokens just for ”sharing FreeRide with friends.” The Read Your Email option is an e-mail-based advertising program. The web site instructs members to watch their e-mail inboxes for special offers from FreeMail. They can then earn tokens for reading and clicking the links provided in the messages. Once again we saw a number of choices, each one with Yes pre-selected. We removed almost all of the prechosen Yes choices and submitted the request. We were taken to a new web page where our chosen links appeared and asked for confirmation. In addition, several links we deliberately did not choose came up for confirmation also. FreeRide.com may not really be free, but it is persistent.

The second message showed how proactive Freeride.com is. It stated that I could earn another 50 tokens by accepting a complimentary subscription to “Free Sites” from “our friends at ArcaMax Publishing”. By clicking a link, the member could confirm his or her subscription. Doing so would gain 50 tokens in a Freeride account. The subscription is a daily e-mail filled with money-saving ideas including free offers, coupon offers, and clearance offers. So far we read nothing that dealt with consumer surveys. Most of the material up to this point contained overt promotional offers.

Finally, the online survey link ZoomPanel appeared as part of one of the messages. ZoomPanel is an online survey panel where consumers are asked about specific products or services. Members are promised rewards for offering opinions in the form of merchandise and gift certificates. The inducement continues by assuring participating members that their views will influence top manufacturers who work with ZoomPanel. Their views can help companies decide what new products to offer or how to improve current products. The final lure is the chance to see “many exciting new things before they hit the market!” We signed up for ZoomPanel and were presented with numerous survey choices. We again found that most of the 20 plus links had “Yes” pre-chosen. We removed all but one and again were given a series of confirmation screens. In truth the persistence is annoying. The software should have spared us the “Are you sure?” repetition, but it did not.

The classic research caveat about subjects who volunteer versus those who do not volunteer must be remembered. Freeride subscribers may be different than non-subscribers on dimensions other than their membership. The survey respondents must have a robust tolerance for annoyance. Still, if researchers keep this in mind, the ease of gaining access to respondents may override the concerns about representativeness. Our concern is that the Freeride.com members who have the stamina to jump through the multiple hoops leading to a survey for profit are MUCH different than ordinary consumers. As researchers, that difference makes those respondents suspect as representatives of ordinary consumers.

In summary. The Freeride.com web site is an interesting idea that forces consumers to make complicated choices in the name of paid consumer research. There are other aspects of the web site like rewards for viewing promotional material. A subset of consumers should find that the web site is interesting and worth the work needed to use it. One thing that was not spelled out clearly at the beginning was the value of their monetary unit, the token. After the work of registering, qualifying and answering a number of questions, one can search and learn that 12,000 tokens roughly equates to $10. Thus, the highly touted promises of rewards of 1000 tokens equate to about $0.83. At that point for this consumer, it is clear that the trip is really not worth it.

If the site offered higher rewards and used less of an onslaught of offers, the basic idea might be more workable.

In our next issue, we will investigate other informative sites and invite readers to submit their favorite internet sites for our consideration.

Reader requests

Please forward all requests to review innovative internet sites to: Dr Dennis Pitta, University of Baltimore, 1420 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21201-5779, USA. Alternatively, please send e-mail to: dpitta@ubalt.edu for prompt attention.

Edited by Dennis A. PittaUniversity of Baltimore