How Do We Get Better Data?

How do we get better data? asks a recent print article in Ad Age about the state of the market research profession. Actually, author Jack Neff asks a lot more, ranging from why marketers don’t fully utilize consumer insights and why research professionals aren’t doing a better job helping them utilize them.

But it’s the data question that’s a big concern. According to research by Burke, anywhere from 11% to 20% of online panel respondents were “fraudulent” or “mentally cheating” in their responses. When you compound that with inherent sampling error, you really have to wonder what in fact you are getting from custom research these days. It goes back to my previous post on the Database of Intentions, if you want the best quality insights these days, you need to focus on what consumers do vs. what they say and you need to aggregate these insights on such a scale that sampling error becomes merely a whisper. Self-reported data still plays a big role, but we really should be looking at it qualitatively versus giving it quantitative authority.