Smartphones: The Future of Marketing Research in Asia Pacific
Asia will be central to the development of mobile research.
Asia will be central to the development of mobile research.
Editor’s note: In this guest post, Ray Poynter, director of Vision Critical University shares the key takeaways from a mobile marketing research conference he co-chaired. Vision Critical is a global market research technology company that builds online platforms to facilitate two-way communications connecting brands and customers from concept testing to buyer preferences and behavior. The community panel’s research firm has more than 600 clients globally from Discovery, Banana Republic to Yahoo. In Asia, it has offices in Australia and Hong Kong as well as China through a recent partnership with Morpace, a full service market research firm.
Global leaders in marketing research gathered in Kuala Lumpur in January for the MRMW (Marketing Research in the Mobile World) event. This event (which I had the honor of co-chairing), comprising workshops and a conference, highlighted the importance of mobile devices (from feature phones to smartphones to tablets) and the key role that Asia Pacific is beginning to take in global marketing and marketing research.
Mobile phones have been seen as the “next big thing” in marketing research for at least the last five years. The logic seemed inescapable, because most people in Asia have a phone, and because people normally have their phone with them, the phone is the obvious way to integrate marketing research into people’s everyday lives. However, until now, three key factors have held mobile marketing research back:
The MRMW event, in Kuala Lumpur, gathered leaders in the field from across Asia Pacific, Europe, and America. The gathering clearly signposted the three key themes that are taking place in marketing research and Asia Pacific, and which are ushering in a new world. These key themes are:
People carry their smartphone with them as they see advertising, consume products, travel, use services, and live their lives – indeed they will experience much of their everyday lives via their phones. Mobile marketing research, via surveys, communities, and passive data collection will soon be common, right across Asia Pacific.