Datafield

Author: Antoine Déroche

As the Market Research is torn away around it's relevancy in a digital world, this article will try to investigate how the Market Research industry is impacted by the all-digital economy and how it can take advantage of it. This post will try to define threats posed by digital to the Market Research industry then see what’s the future of market research and how mobile market research is poised to lead the market industry.

  As we know, the Market Research industry is traditionally divided between Qualitative and Quantitative market research. The former and the later regroups multiple technics whose primary target is to collect data (complex or simple) in order to know the current and future state of a specific dimension of a business. These studies can be punctual or happens on a regular basis and become barometers or index that helps defined and anticipate trends. Used over the past century, those technics are indeed threatened by the digital economy. 

  WHY TRADITIONAL MARKET RESEARCH IS THREATEN BY THE DIGITAL INDUSTRY

  As with any traditional businesses, the Market Research industry should expect digital enterprises to commit a budget to perform market research activities. For instance, e-commerce businesses needs to know their customers and the trends with regards to goods sold. Mobile Application developers need to know what are the next features they should focus on. And so on. However, those businesses rarely works with traditional market research company for the 3 following reasons:

 1- Market Research is all about data and digital businesses are great with data. 

Voice of the customers market studies have lost value in the Web 2.0 economy as Digital enterprises know exactly their customer behavior, and do not need to survey them. It takes a few click for a web product manager to follow up in real time their customer behavior: how the customer interact with the products, what does he likes and don't like, how much is he willing to pay. This data can be collected directly by the company digging into their backend system or by pluging third party system. You can create you website heatmap in second with crazy egg, view and analyse your customers segment with Kiss Metrics and perform advanced customer's behavior queries with Google analytics. Similarly, some mobile Application tracking systems such as Flurry Analytics or Capptain helps track all in-app behavior. When it comes to the TV screen, the new platforms such as Hulu, Netflix or Apple TV are doing a much better job at tracking real-time audience and viewer’s behavior than did Nielsen tracking system over the past century. 

Hence, you do not need to ask market Research company what the customer do and feel. You just know it in real time. Last year acquisition of Vizu, a web advertising tracking solution, by Nielsen was a right move to keep in the game of measuring audience and delivering recommendations to brands. 

2- Prospective research is all about statistic and digital businesses are great at statistics

Analyzing historical data to predict future behavior has long been the job of statisticians using complex models ensuring unbiased forecasts...that seldomly materialized. In the digital world, the future is now and we can question it on the spot. Digital companies are often familiar with lean management method and the need to improve through iteration. Based on current customer behavior, digital companies can tweak their product instantly and rapidly reckon if their prediction were correct or not. Continous iteration allows seeking for the optimal product strategy without the need for Market Research firm. In this area as well, off-the-shelfs software such as unbounce or Optimizely exists in order to conduct A/B or multivariable testing on web pages. 

Amazon.com probably epitomize the threat that well managed digital businesses pose to the Market Research Industry. Amazon knows all information they need about prospects and customers (maybe even more data than only what they need) and Amazon collect a massive amount of data across tons of verticals that can be aggregated and segmented to predict behavior. Specifically, Amazon periodically analyzes user-browsing histories to identify correlations between purchases, viewing events or other actions performed with respect to particular products. As a result, Amazon can recommend the best products to their visitors, using only their internal data.

  Note that there's no mention here of "social data" or other "big data" to make market research irrelevant. Simply mentioning internal data combined with smart analytical tools. 

  3- Digital companies trust their budget with digital company, turning pure software company into new Market Research Leaders

  If most of the software and tools listed above works for product/company specific analysis, there's still a need for broad data and research at an industry/ecosystem level. Here again, traditional data collection methods are fast becoming irrelevant. You need research about the web?  Turn to SEO data company such as Alexa Ranking or Google to drill down the World Wide Web and get instant and accurate data. You need research about the Mobile application market? Turn to mobile analytics companies such as App Annie or Distimo to deep into the intimacy of the Apple AppStore market or Google Play marketplace. You need research about Facebook app ecosystem? Visit specialist data provider such as Appdata and gain access to your favorite social network trends. 

  Market Research in the digital world is about automatic data collection and analytics. Most of traditional Market Research companies did not invest in this area or did not provide the right ecosystem to attract relevant talent to build these products. 

  HOW TO TURN DIGITAL INTO OPPORTUNITIES FOR MARKET RESEARCH COMPANIES

Smart market research companies could use those threats at their advantage. Key trends that we believe will emerge in the near future: 

1 - Market Research will become Software Company 

Market Research company that do not invest enough in software will loose the game as they will not be able to collect the right data at the right moment. Market Research Company will need to become technological companies or else build strong partnership with technological company. This can be quite challenging, as the mindset between those industries is relatively different.  

2 - Market Research will become Consultancy

Hopefully, most software won't be able to provide directly actionable recommendation for brands. The modern market researcher should master I.T tools to get most accurate data but human brains would do final recommendations. For instance, understanding the impact and opportunities arising from Meme website for a traditional pet food company is clearly a job for the smart market researchers. Winning Market Research Company will be providing insight and consultancy. 

3- Primary market for Market Research will be… mobility 

However large is the digital sector, brick and mortar companies are here to stay. People will still buy at retailers, supermarkets and coffee shops, go entertain, travel,visit their banks and local brokers. Traditional customers of Market Research will never be able to only rely on their facebook page to understand and anticipate their customer's needs. Where software is not available, market research should be. Collecting data on site, at the point of interaction between brands and customers will become more and more relevant. It's a safe bet to believe that in the near future, brands will add kiosks and tablets at all point of interaction with their customers. Offline businesses will then be able to instantly and globally collect relevant customer data. This may prove a chance to regain a trusted position for those investing in the right technologies. Tablet based technology such as Datafield will be ubiquitous, with instant and fun data collection method, taking advantage of stickers, smileys, Thumbs up or any other non-text method to collect customer feedback.  

4- Face-to-face survey will still exist, but empowered by mobile

Market Research companies focusing on the distribution sectors, performing mystery shopping and retail audit works, have already taken advantage of rugged devices. They scan barcode at light speed and report key data instantly. The ubiquity and power of smartphones will spread the use of mobile devices to almost all onsite research. Simple customer satisfaction surveys delivered at the point of interaction, whether it is through the customer smartphone or the brand's screen, will be the norm. Brands will monitor instantly and in real time customer happiness in the offline world. Customers will take back control of when and how much they want to share when interacting with a brand.   

5- CAPI will be mobile only

The relative use of phone, mail or email method to conduct interviews is bound to diminish as those intrusive and easy to reject methods are becoming less and less efficient. Direct, face-to-face, methods with the use of tablet and mobile will probably be cheaper and bring higher responses rate. Several survey app already flourish on the market. Kantar took a stake in Lumi mobile, Survey Monkey is preparing it's own, and independent player such as Datafield are providing platforms on which the market research industry and panel provider can make profits. Market Research company will need to adopt a Mobile First strategy in developed countries and and even Mobile only strategy in emerging market. 

  Indeed, the market research industry is at a crossroad, and should decide whether it will be taken over by technology companies or else will be able to integrate software and improve their value proposition to stay relevant to brands. Anyhow, mobility is poised to be the key elements on which Market Research company will survive or decline.

Innovative way to collect subscriber data in real time using your smartphone connected to your MailChimp lists.

Datafield tutorial #1 : HOW TO... CREATE A FORM

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a simple form on Datafield web platform :

- Select between the different question type

- Add a title to your question

- Add options to your question

Datafield, partenaire du Printemps des Etudes 2013

Le Printemps des études s’est imposé comme le salon de référence pour les professionnels des études marketing. La seconde édition aura lieu le 4 et 5 Avril 2013 dans le prestigieux palais Brongniard, ou plus de  350 membres, entreprises et organisations professionnelles du secteur des Sondages et des Etudes Marketing et Opinion, se regrouperont.

Le Printemps des études à fait appel à Datafield pour la production de l’application smartphone du printemps des études. Celle-ci permet d'accéder à l’ensemble du programme du 4 et 5 Avril et de consulter le détail de chaque conférences et rendez-vous qui auront lieu. L’application sera un précieux outils pour se 

 L’application permet aussi de donner son avis sur le salon et sur chacune des interventions, grâce à la technologie Datafield d'enquêtes sur mobile et tablette.

Venez retrouver l’équipe Datafield au Printemps des études sur le stand de l’Agora ! 

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  Datafield, partners with «Le Printemps des Etudes» 2013. 

The  trade show «Le Salon des Etudes» will take place on April 4th and 5th in the prestigious Palais Brongiard. The show has quiclky become the reference for French market research profesional to gather and share around innovative practices and key trends in the industry.  More than 350 participants are expected, coming from established global company or young start-up challenging the status quo. 

Datafield has been selected to design and develop the Mobile application for the event. The mobile application is giving easy acces to the programs and to the full list of conférences and Rendez-Vous. The application is also powered by the Datafield technology, allowing user to provide feedback on the salon thanks to the embedded mobile survey. 

Come join us at the Printemps des Etudes and visit our booth on the Agora stand. 

Voici les principaux écrans de l'application du printemps des études. Un cas d'étude intéréssant sur la mise en place d'énquêtes mobiles au sein d'une application tierce.  

Page d'accueil de l'application mobile du Printemps des  études avec les principales fonctions de l'application : accès facilité au programme et retour d'expérience.

Accès à la programmation : liste des Rendez-vous et info détaillés

Accès à la programmation : liste des Conférences et info détaillés

L'application permet aux participants de donner leurs avis sur chacune des conférences et Rendez vous. La fonctionnalité d'enquêtes sur site fait appel à la technologie Datafield de création et d'administration de formulaires sur mobiles. 

A Propos de l'application. Une co-production Empresarial, Actfuture et Datafield.  

Thanks to Datafield, there’s no need to buy email list anymore. Put your favorites tablet in front of your customers and prospects and have them fill your email database, for instance using MAILCHIMP. 

Let’s look at this step by step tutorial on how to rapidly build qualified and relevant email list that could be used to gain new customers and engage with existing ones. 

Step 1: Create a Mobile Registration form using Datafield web Dashboard 

Sign up or login to Datafield and create your form requesting an email and a name + an other information that may be usefull for your segmentation strategy: gender, age,area of interest or else. 

Your registration form appear then on Datafield Mobile Application (or your custom mobile application if you require). Your customer or prospect can simply input it’s email. We would advise to provide an incentive such a access to promotions, special discount or valuable tips to encourage users to opt-in to your newsletter/emailing list. 

Here is the iPad screen as it will look on Datafield mobile application. Let us know if you required a special design. 

Step 2 : Match your Datafield registration field with your MAILCHIMP mailing list field using SYNCAPPS 

First, you need to first select the Datafield form that you want to Sync, then select the exact field from this Datafield form that will feed your MAILCHIMP mailing list. 

Quite simple isnt'it ? SyncApps will then automatically sync Datafield email field with MAILCHIMP email field, and so on. 

  Of course, you can decide to collect and sync more than just email address in order to have proper segmentation or your list. For instance, you can ask for the age, name or income bracket if you feel it is relevant. All these information will automatically be added to the relevant field whithin MAILCHIMP email list.

Step 3 : Your MAILCHIMP email list is updated with emails collected with the Datafield Mobile Application. 

You are building your MAILCHIMP mailing list with emails collected with both the iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android mobile Application. The list are automatically sync when user fill the registration form on the mobile application. 

CONSTANT CONTACT TUTORIAL -  HOW TO BUILD EMAIL LIST EASILY USING CONSTANT CONTACT AND DATAFIELD MOBILE REGISTRATION FORM ? 

  The time when you were spending lots of money to buy shaky mailing lists are gone. Put your favorites tablet in front of your customers and prospects and have them fill your email database, for instance using Constant Contact. 

STEP 1: Create a Mobile Registration form using Datafield web Dashboard 

Let’s look at this step by step tutorial on how to rapidly build qualified and relevant email list that could be used to gain new customers and engage with existing ones. 

Sign up or login to Datafield and create your form requesting an email and a name + an other information that may be usefull for your segmentation strategy: gender, age,area of interest or else. 

Your registration form appear then on Datafield Mobile Application (or your custom mobile application if you require). Your customer or prospect can simply input it’s email. We would advise to provide an incentive such a access to promotions, special discount or valuable tips to encourage users to opt-in to your newsletter/emailing list. 

Here is the iPad screen as it will look on Datafield mobile application. Let us know if you required a special design. 

    STEP 2: Match your Datafield registration field with your Constant Contact mailing list field using CAZOOMI SYNCAPPS ALWAYS. 

First, you need to first select the Datafield form that you want to Sync, then select the exact field from this Datafield form that will feed your Constant Contact mailing list. 

Quite simple isnt'it ? SyncApps Always will then automatically sync Datafield email field with Constant Contact email field, and so on. 

Of course, you can decide to collect and sync more than just email address in order to have proper segmentation or your list. For instance, you can ask for the age, name or income bracket if you feel it is relevant. All these information will automatically be added to the relevant field whithin Constant Contact email list. 

STEP3: Your Constant Contact email list is updated with emails collected with the Datafield Mobile Application. 

You are then building your Constant Contact mailing list with emails collected with both the iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android mobile Application. The list are automatically sync when user fill the registration form on the mobile application. 

Any questions ? Any doubts ? Do not waste your time and drop us an email at [email protected]. We will do the job for you. 

Build email database rapidly. Collect inventory or sales figures. Auto-sync with your existing software. 

Wikipedia is defining an Application Programming Interface (API) as a protocol intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other. Behind those 3 letters, lies a powerful way to automatize processes and  make it easy to share and synchronize Data between different Information System. 

Let’s take a closer at Datafield API and see how it can help you save time and gain more control on your current operations. The API are working 2 ways :

Automatically feed your Database with email / data / information collected on site with Datafield mobile application.

Automatically send forms and survey to your existing Contact list

Let’s review each scenario and provide usefull business practices.

1- FEED YOU SYSTEM WITH DATA COLLECTED ON FIELD WITH DATAFIELD MOBILE APPLICATION. 

You are probably currently using a set of software to run your businesses. Most popular among our customers are: 

Customer Relationship Management: SALESFORCES or ZOHO 

Enterprise Resources Planning : SAP, ORACLE or NETSUITE

Project Management Software: BASECAMP

Email Service Provider: CONSTANT CONTACT or MAILCHIMP

All these tools are working well and sometimes even have their own mobile application. However, the only way to add some information to each of these software is to login, go to the correct field and manually input the data. Whenever you are at your desk, that’s probably fine. 

But what if you need to:

input a new prospect email with your existing Email Service Provider, while you are at your booth in a tradeshow

Add your customer email and contact information inside your Salesforce customers list, while they visit your shop  

Give the possibility for your followers to subscribe to your newsletter, while you are doing an onsite promotional event 

No one want to showcase a paper based form to be filled, then input the data manually. 

Then comes Datafield and it’s set of API.

One popular use of Datafield is about capturing email on the spot.  For instance, we have been working with a Chain of Coffee shops who had difficulties identifying and reward their customers. Whatever good was their marketing automation system, it was worthless without proper customer data. They decided to display a tablet at each of their counters. For each email filled, they would give away a free coffee. Outcome ? More than 75% of customers decided to fill up their (real) email. There’s no better way to build a sound newsletter mailing list.  

Sweet, isn’t it ?

Then comes Datafield API. all these customers email are automatically sync and transfered to your favorite Email Service Provider, be it Constant Contact or MailChimp. Your mailing list are up to date, with no effort. 

Another interesting example in the FMCG indutry. Our customer, a global cosmetic company wanted to have a better control of what was happening within their distribution network. They decided to use Datafield in order to collect inventory and sales figures and collect additional key data for their 50 products. Thanks to Datafield API, those information are instantly and automatically fed inside their ERP (SAP) and all product manager stay up to date with latest product information. 

Here’s the equation: 

DATAFIELD + API = UPDATED DATA ON CUSTOMERS AND OPERATION

  2- INPUT YOUR CONTACT LIST TO DATAFIELD

As we all know, starting using a new sofware or mobile application can be painful. With Datafield API, we ease the process of inviting mobile respondents to reply your form. In case you know who you want to invite to fill out your mobile form, and this list is already somewhere. This could be a contact list on an excel spreadsheet or your customer database on your CRM or your suppliers contact info on your ERP.

To simplify your life, Datafield API will connect to that «somewhere» and let you invite easily all your contact to take part in your Datafield mobile application.  

  API are helping integrate our world. Starting on the web, then spreading to mobile. next step is with the Internet of things. More about API is available here: http://www.programmableweb.com/

Datafield tutorial: HOW TO...SYNC WITH BOX.COM

In this tutorial, you will learn how to sync the data collected on Box cloud platform.

All data collected with Datafield mobile application (text, figures, pictures, GPS localisation) can be automatically sync with Box Cloud Platform. In just one click.