Thoughts by Joel Rubinson, Chief Research Officer of The ARF
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Marketers must use new approaches and adopt a new corporate culture to become fast-learning organizations, or they will find their opportunities in the new normal defined by a future that is not of their own making.

Six big wakeup calls in 2009 are doing the marketing research profession a favor; refocusing us on what it will take to conduct trustworthy research, find unexpected feedback, provide anticipatory insights, measure media in a way that people now choose to experience it, and properly rebalance our understanding of how people choose brands by placing more emphasis on understanding the shopper.

Internet research has some huge advantages. It is not only faster and less expensive; it offers an environment that is more native to our digital, interconnected world. We must not shy away from finding the best way of harnessing the more realistic environment that internet research can offer.

At the ARF, a panel of scientists and buyers unanimously agreed that, with proper procedures, quota samples from double opt-in online research panels can produce reliable and consistent data, which make them a valid choice for tracking research and concept testing.

When Stan Stanunathan, global insights leader at Coca-Cola says, “Data quality doesn’t matter”, what he means is “data quality is not enough”. He advises that we researchers must not have an eternal debate about data quality. We must move on to insights that “inspire the marketer”. This is a great wakeup call to researchers that data quality is a means to an end.

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