Clean water. Electricity. Stoplights. These are all things we take for granted because they are very reliable. They are so reliable that they are boring. They are reliably boring. And that’s a good thing.
The market research industry’s credibility assumes that our survey results are representative and reliable. But that supposition is increasingly wrong.
Sample is now available from a myriad of sources, and it is increasingly inexpensive. But where does it come from? Does the source introduce bias? What are the respondent’s motivations? Can the results be trusted? Are they representative? Are they reproducible?
These are all critical questions that the industry cannot afford to ignore. Unfortunately, it is bringing the research industry to a crisis point.
The reality is many sample sources are unreliable and unrepresentative. As a result, they point you to wrong conclusions and lead businesses to make incorrect choices.
Market research’s sole function is to provide insights that improve decision-making. When the research you are using misleads, it not only leads to a wrong business decision but also undermines the whole reason for doing research in the first place.
In the pursuit of an inexpensive sample, the industry is shooting itself in the foot.
It is vital to the future of market research to question where a sample comes from, what the respondent’s motivations are, and how representative and reliable the resulting information is. That’s why we conduct ongoing monitoring of the reliability of our market communities. And while the results are about as exciting as saying, “yes, this water is clean and good to drink,” it is vital information. It provides robust evidence, which you can share with internal stakeholders, of the quality of your data.
With so many problems with much of the sample available today, it is reassuring to know that some sample sources are like electricity and clean water—boringly reliable. To learn more about the reliability of our market communities, download our whitepaper Boringly Reliable: evidence of the consistency of Maru’s market community sample.
