In the halcyon days of the market research industry – not quite when dinosaurs roamed the earth, but close – paper-and-pencil interviewing (PAPI) was virtually the sole mode of quantitative data collection: Referring to a hard copy questionnaire, the interviewer would ask questions verbatim (i.e., exactly as they were printed on the page, following the prescribed skip patterns), and write the respondent’s replies directly onto the page.
PAPI is a time-consuming and error-prone method of research data collection, relying heavily on the diligence with which the interviewer follows skip pattern directions and legibly records the respondent’s answers. With PAPI, data integrity can also be compromised if different regional accents mitigated how well the interviewer and interviewee understand one another.
I am knocking on an open door when I say that technology is constantly allowing us to change the way we work. But somehow I have the feeling that the data collection for Market Research Industry is trying very hard to ignore this. Let me list a number of developments I recently ran into which I expect to see emerging within the Market research sector.
