Market Research trends in India – boosted by Mobile phones & Smartphones
4 min readMarket research is an essential tool for businesses looking to understand their target audience and stay ahead of the competition.
With the rise of mobile and smartphone usage in India, market research has taken on a new dimension. In this interview article, we speak to Navin Williams, Founder of Mobile Measure – a leading firm in the domain in Asia & also a market research expert based in Shanghai, about the use of mobiles and smartphones in market research in India.
With the rapid adoption of smartphones and mobile internet, it has become easier for businesses to reach their target audience and gather valuable insights. With the advent of the pandemic the penetration as well as engagement time with mobile phones went up tremendously in India.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about the role of mobiles and smartphones in market research and it’s trends in India?
A: Mobiles and smartphones are playing an increasingly important role in market research in India. With the rapid adoption of smartphones and mobile internet, it has become easier for businesses to reach their target audience and gather valuable insights. With the advent of the pandemic the penetration as well as engagement time with mobile phones went up tremendously in India. Today in the post pandemic scenario, many market research firms in India use mobile surveys, mobile ethnography, and mobile panels to gather information.
Navin specifically mentions that Also the research landscape is better with better technology tools for data collection, data verification, measurement and analytics. As mobile penetration is high in the post pandemic period, fintech and banking activities are through the mobile phones mostly. Digital payments are growing as well in India. So rewards are received instantly by survey respondents in the market research studies they participated in. Thus, participation is seen going up due to this trend. However, the problem is digital is small pool of people in the entire market population especially with higher age groups and so getting an ideal research sample with it is an onerous task for researchers. Mobile based research also increases participation of research groups from distant areas, so quality of the research improves too as remote consumers grow into research panels and studies.
Q: How do you think mobile-based market research differs from traditional market research?
A: As you see, Mobile-based market research offers several advantages over traditional research methods. For one, it allows businesses to reach a wider audience, including people in remote areas who may not have access to traditional research methods. Additionally, mobile-based research is more cost-effective, as it eliminates the need for paper-based surveys and other materials.
Also, in terms of Research Measurement, the traditional methods were slow and tedious processes. But with mobile based surveys, there is faster measurement and analysis of the research data. Also, tech enabled analytics is mostly the norm with most campaigns. Also, data processing is much faster for a large samples…But traditional research has the edge in having a better engagement with the remote respondents for many areas in India.
Q: Can you give us an example of how mobile-based market research has been used in India?
A: Sure, one example is the use of mobile ethnography to gather insights into the lives of people living in rural areas. Mobile ethnography involves asking participants to take pictures or videos of their daily lives using their smartphones. This method allows researchers to get a firsthand look at how people live and work, and gather insights that would be difficult to obtain through traditional research methods.
Q: Are there any challenges associated with mobile-based market research in India?
A: Yes, there are a few challenges. One is the issue of data privacy and security. With the increasing use of mobile devices to collect data, it is important to ensure that the data collected is secure and that participants’ privacy is protected. Additionally, there is a need to ensure that the research is representative of the population being studied. In India, for example, not everyone has access to smartphones or mobile internet, so researchers need to be mindful of this when designing their studies.
Also in India many non-urban areas do not have speed connectivity and so remote users are costly to reach. Also to increase engagement with non-urban respondents, researchers have to use pictorial & gamefy-ed forms and also include vernacular language research forms which may lead to diminishing loss of understanding the research query as the regional language may not have a efficacy impact as English language.
Q: What do you see as the future of mobile market research in India?
A: I think mobile-based market research will continue to grow in popularity in India. With the increasing penetration of smartphones and mobile internet, it has become easier and more cost-effective for businesses to gather valuable insights. Additionally, advances in technology, such as the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, are making it possible to gather and analyze large amounts of data quickly and efficiently.
In conclusion, mobile-based market research is becoming increasingly popular in India. It offers several advantages over traditional research methods, including the ability to reach a wider audience and gather valuable insights quickly and cost-effectively. However, it is important to ensure that data privacy and security are maintained, and that research is representative of the population being studied. With the continued growth of mobile technology, the future of market research in India looks promising.
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